The training was held on October 19 and 20 at the Koror State conference room and was attended by 50 participants from government and private sectors.
Bradley Kumangai, Senior Criminal Investigator for the Office of the Special Prosecutor said that the focus of the training is about fraud and procurement and the objective of the training is to broaden the knowledge or expertise of the investigators to detect fraud and corruption in the government.
“It was just a general training but we’re anticipating more in depth training in the future. The reason why we asked a lot of people to come in this kind of training is for them to be aware of an indicators of possible fraud and corruption within our government in that way it helps our job and so if they know of some potential fraud or corruption they know where to report it or whom to talk to,” Kumangai said.
The training was arranged by the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Public Auditor’s Office and was funded by the Department of Interior.
Kumangai said the training was facilitated by Assistant Inspector General Rob Knox and Jim Smith Director for the Acquisition Integrity Unit for Department of Interior Office of Inspector General.
Special Prosecutor Michael Copeland said the training was a first in Palau. In the previous years, Palau sent representative to Guam to participate in this kind of training.
Copeland thanked the Department of Interior and the instructors Knox and Smith for making it possible.
Knox talked about procurement fundamentals and contract risks while Smith talked about grant fraud and best practices for seizing electronic evidence.
