Paul Tiensten
Paul Tiensten (born 1966) is a former
Tiensten holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Papua New Guinea and a Masters in Resources Law at the Center for Energy, Petroleum, Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee, Scotland.[1]
He served as a Director of Petroleum at the Department of Petroleum and Energy for the government of Papua New Guinea and was also a Project Manager for the World Bank funded Gas Development and Utilization Technical Assistance Project.[1]
Political career
Tiensten was first elected to parliament in 2002 and was appointed as the Chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Gas and Energy Development. He was later appointed
He was re-elected in 2007 for a second term of Parliament as Minister for National Planning and District Development, but lost his portfolio in August 2011 when a defection of MPs saw the government of Michael Somare disbanded.[2]
Controversy
Taiwan diplomatic scandal
In 2008, Singaporean businessman Wu Shih-tsa alleged in a Taiwanese court that six Papua New Guinea officials, including Paul Tiensten, personally profited from a payment of A$19 million from Taiwan in a bid to strengthen diplomatic relations with Papua New Guinea. Tiensten admitted to meeting the Taiwanese officials, but denied the allegations of corruption.[2]
Sam Koim, the chairman of the anti-corruption investigation team Task Force Sweep, announced in December 2011 that he may be investigating the Taiwan diplomatic scandal in early 2012.[3]
Kikori misappropriation controversy
In January 2010 Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations,
Subsequently the chairman of one of the four landowner associations, the
Tiensten’s arrest amid corruption claims
In early November 2011, Tiensten was arrested by the government’s Investigation Task Force Sweep, a corruption investigation task force established by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill. The charges against Tiensten related to the misappropriation of funds, conspiracy to defraud the state and abuse of office, for his part in approving a PGK 10 million payment of air subsidies to the airline company Travel Air. It was alleged that Tiensten conspired with Travel Air's owner, businessman Eremas Wartoto, to make the payment while he was National Planning Minister, despite being aware that the company was inactive. Tiensten had initially fled to Australia in September 2011 when summoned for questioning by the Investigation Task Force Sweep, but was arrested in Papua New Guinea upon his return in November.[6][7][8]
Tiensten was later arrested in November 2011 by the Investigation Task Force Sweep on three further charges for diverting PGK 3.4 million of government funding to Tolpot Services Ltd, of which he was both a shareholder and a director.[7][9]
In March 2014, he was convicted of misappropriation over 10 million
References
- ^ a b c Business for Millennium Development (2008). "Speakers for Summit '08". Business for Millennium Development. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012.
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has generic name (help) - ^ a b Liam Fox (22 November 2011). "Embattled MP kicked out of PNG parliament". ABC News. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
- ^ "PNG Increases Funding for Corruption Task Force". Pacific Islands Report. 27 December 2011. Archived from the original on 31 December 2014.
- ^ a b Isaac Nicholas (2010). "PNG Minister Claims to Have Uncovered Massive Fraud". Pacific Islands Report. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- ^ a b Joshua Arlo (4 August 2010). "Fraud case struck out". Post Courier. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013.
- ^ AAP (15 September 2011). "Papua New Guinea minister flees to Australia over corruption allegations". The Australian.
- ^ a b Samuel Raitano (17 November 2011). "Tiensten faces three charges". Malum Nalu.
- ^ Eoin Blackwell (1 December 2011). "PNG corruption force creates watch list". The Age. Retrieved 30 December 2014.
- ^ Post-Courier Online (18 November 2011). "Tiensten in custody on second charge". Post-Courier Online. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012.
- ^ "Former PNG minister gets 3 more years in jail". Radio New Zealand. 17 April 2015. Retrieved 15 November 2018.