Last week I shared the story of our founding Prime Minister Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare introducing a bill in Parliament to outlaw MPs and public servants from owning businesses in 1977-78.

The bill was met with stiff opposition and was never passed. The essence of the actions of Sir Michael was that he was already concerned about corruption very early on in the formation of our country. Sir Michael was thinking ahead of his time in the late 1970s when things did work well with government systems and processes being respected by MPs and public servants alike.

Move to the 1980s, and corruption was beginning to be a national development topic and among other evidence of corruption, a number of provincial governments were suspended for mismanagement and corruption.

When we entered the 1990s, corruption was already a serious national development problem that we were looking for ways to address. The famous Justice Tos Barnett inquiry into corruption in the multi-million kina forestry industry in the late 80s early 90s is one major example of the extent of corruption in that era.

It was the decade of the 1990s that some of our esteemed leaders and citizens alike became vocal about the widespread prevalence of corrupt pratices.

The corruption problem was such that Papua New Guinea’s first national Chief Justice the late Sir Buri Kidu once said: “If we charged everyone who is corrupt, we’d probably have no-one left to run the place.”Sir Buri passed away on 30 January, 1994.

Other eminent persons also made their observations about corruption in PNG throughout the 1990s.

Our first ever Secretary for Finance at Independence in 1975 Sir Mekere Morauta is widely quoted as saying the following about corruption in the mid-1990s: “It is systematic and systemic”.

A very vocal Catholic missionary, Archbishop Brian Barnes said: “PNG politics is fuelled by self-interest and greed, at the expense of the people and the nation.”

Former governor of Western Highlands Father Robert Lak said: “Our society is corrupt and corrupt societies elect corrupt leaders’.

Former Chief Ombudsman Sir Charles Maino said the following about corruption in PNG: “You steal a tin of fish, and you’re in jail. Leaders misappropriate millions, but they’re still on the streets.”

These are observations of some our eminent leaders which we barely took note of seriously to address corruption in PNG.

In the last few days, I was reflecting on the words of the above eminent persons and juxtaposed their observations with what has been happening in recent years. I came away concluding that we really have done little to address corruption.

Yes, we just passed the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) bill in Parliament, but beyond the passage of the legislation little else seems to be happening as a matter of urgency against corruption.

COVID 19 seems to have taken our national will to do things like the fight against corruption and continued running of the country.

In some circles, there has been a growing concern about the manner in which the COVID 19 funds from overseas partners had been used. To date, there is no report about how the different lots of money given to our government was used.

The lack of reporting of the use of the COVID 19 funding does not speak well for a government that flamboyantly took office on an “anti-corruption” platform on 30 May 2019.

The new pandemic law passed by Parliament also raised so many eyebrows when the law gave the Controller unperturbed powers in the use of the public funds under his watch. The law allows the controller to bypass and work above certain sections of the Public Finance Management Act to use public funds earmarked for the pandemic. The argument supporting this scenario is that the pandemic is an emergency and the controller does not have to be put through the tedious process of PFM Act and must bypass the requirements to access funds to attend to the emergencies of the pandemic.

Many learned persons and ordinary citizens alike protested to this peculiar arrangement that is prone to corruption. But the government did not listen.

What does that mean for our resolve to fight corruption? Are we genuine when one public servant is given the ultimate power to decide on how to use public funds made available to fight the pandemic?

We understand, we are in a health emergency situation. But does that mean some public finance management requirements have to be suspended? I personally think no, we should still follow the proper accountability processes of government in the use of public funds made available in the name of the pandemic

For a country where many people live and breathe in corrupt practices, it makes the whole arrangement subject to questions.

Government contracts is one of the main source of corrupt conduct and the COVID 19 management lands itself in that realm.

My point is that we are kidding ourselves when we say we are putting in place ICAC Act and other facilities to curtail corruption.

What we must understand is corruption or gaining and leading a life out of corruptly gained wealth is an increasing norm for so many Papua New Guineans. How do we break the cycle?