Ex-fighter joins call to stop Asians taking out cash Post Courier 20 January 2015 BY SEBASTIAN HAKALITS THE issue of Chinese businesses operating in Bougainville has another revelation from a former BRA commander of Tinputz district. This time it’s a testimony from a Bougainvillean, Mr Peter Baka, who was employed with New Household, a Chinese wholesaler in Buka town as a driver and cash handler for that company. Mr Baka said the story of these foreigners transporting cash out of the region is not a fiction but a fact. He said he usually did the packing of cash in a carton; the size of an “Em Nau” biscuit carton with crabs put on top of the cash and sealed or sometimes cash was put in back packs and taken to the airport. “It was my duty of transporting cash to the airport, because of my background as a former fighter and usually I would go first to the airport, do the check-in for whoever was travelling, get the time for boarding and I would return to the work place to pick-up the cash and the passenger and travel to the airport,” said Mr Baka. He said if the cash was packed in the box with crabs than I would carry it into the terminal and hand it to the Chinese person who was travelling at that time during boarding time or when it was packed in a back pack then the traveller would wait with me in the car until the time when passengers were boarding and they would rush in with the bag and head straight for the boarding gate. Mr Baka said from Monday to Thursday they would usually make between K40,000 to K45,000 and on Fridays the company would make K60, 000 from their day’s takings and the notes they stored in 23 footer containers at the back of the warehouse and coins were put in the freezer with other goods. He said the company had an account in the bank and it was for the purpose of depositing cheques that customers used to buy goods with and for transferring money from customer’s accounts when using the EFPTOS at the shop but eventually when the cheques were cleared they would withdraw a large amount of cash with a few cash balance remaining in the account. He said he was always the one who would escort them to the bank. He said some high ranking officers in Bougainville were inside these Chinese businesses and could be on their payroll, that’s why nothing is being done about these corrupt practices. “I appeal to the President of the Autonomous Bougainville Government and members of the House to do something about this. He said cash shortage was crippling local business and hampering “development to what we are trying to achieve and we don’t want the Chinese businesses to suffocate us as this might lead to us not achieving our independence from Papua New Guinea,” Mr Baka said. He is calling on authorities and police to investigate this dangerous trend.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 17:09:14 +0000
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