The President of Bougainville says many of the people who issued an ultimatum to his government last week are themselves facing investigation by the Papua New Guinea police fraud squad.
The group last week threatened to shut down the autonomous Bougainville government amid accusations of wrongdoing and mismanagement by President John Momis and some senior officials.
There were allegations of double dipping while on overseas travel and claims of misappropriation and misuse of government funds.
Mr Momis said there was no basis to the claims and the people making them have become desperate once the fraud squad was brought in to investigate corruption within Bougainville’s public service.
“Now they are trumping up these false accusations against the government and government leaders, including myself and my wife. So I will be making a statement to refute the allegations which are totally not true and they have been made by people who are implicated, people who are not prepared to accept the fact that the government has a responsibility to clean up the public service.”
