NAC secretariat chairman Sir Peter Barter also described as “unacceptable” a letter from NACS acting director Romulus Pakure regarding more than two million condoms going past their expiry date without being distributed.
Sir Peter confirmed this while international media reported of HIV/AIDS ravaging PNG as the NACS became “rotten to the core.”
“It’s a mess,” he told The National. “That’s all I can say about it. “There is an inspection going on, as well as an internal investigation,” Sir Peter said. “It’s quite a big scam involving millions of kina.”
Australian Associated Press reported that the NACS had overspent its budget, with millions of kina wasted — most notably on unnecessary travel —while about 2 percent of PNG’s population became infected with HIV/AIDS. It said that it had documents outlining alleged abuses by NACS staff.
Sir Peter also told The National that the government should shoulder its share of the blame. The NACS had been without a council and substantive director for almost two years, Sir Peter said.
“The government must also take the responsibility as well,” he said. “To correct something like this, that has been going on for so long, is extremely difficult. The NAC first met on Dec. 15 after almost 18 months without a council.”
He added, “After a shutdown over Christmas/New Year, a meeting was held last month. The main focus was to get a director appointed to take charge again. The NACS has been without a substantive director for almost two years.”
According to Sir Peter, “We are dealing with alleged corruption along with ways to operate with a 67 percent reduction in the budget, coupled with the devalued Australian funding. We are making progress toward appointment of a director, along with measures to prevent further wastage of funds.”
Sir Peter said a new director for NACS should be appointed towards the middle of this month or early next month.
NACS acting director Romulus Pakure said in his March 4 letter to Sir Peter that 586,064 condoms held in the AusAID/NACS warehouse at Badili had reached expiry date.
“None of these condoms have been purchased by NACS,” he said.
“Rather, they are the remainder of inventories that were transferred to NACS following the wind-up of NHASP (support project) or part of a consignment donated in late 2007 which had a relatively short shelf life,” he said.
“It is not known exactly when the NHASP condoms were purchased, however. “Generally, condoms are supplied with a four-to-five-year shelf life,” he added.
“Further, NACS has not purchased any pre-packed condoms that are unsuitable for current dispensing machines. Only the Karamap pre-packed condoms, which were originally designed for retail vending machines, were unsuitable for use in the NACS dispensers.”
