The inquiry into a A$1.2 billion ($847 million) loan issued by UBS to the country's previous government will start on September 17.
Chairman of the commission of inquiry Salamo Injia, who leads an investigation into a loan issued by UBS to Papua New Guinea's previous government, said the budget of K4 million, allocated by the government for the inquiry for that was planned to last three months, will likely balloon.
«After having done some preparatory work in the last three weeks, the cost might triple and the period required might double the initial projections,» Injia said to local newspaper «The National» on Tuesday.
The report also noted the appointment of John Gilmour QC, a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia, to the commission, as well as Mathew Howard, a senior lawyer in Australia who specialises in commercial litigation, and
junior counsel Alexander Mossop, a lawyer from Perth in Western Australia.
Anti-Corruption Drive
In August, newly elected Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape announced the launch of a full investigation to confirm if the government had violated its own rules regarding a A$1.2 billion loan extended by UBS in 2014, while Marape was finance minister, to purchase a key stake in energy firm Oil Search.
Hours after the inquiry was announced, Marape named Injia, the country's former chief justice, as the head of the commission of inquiry, adding that he was a man of respectable standing and integrity to deliver «what the country and the people wanted to know concerning the UBS K3 billion loan.»
According to opposition leader Patrick Pruaitch, the loan was «one of the most lucrative deals ever done by UBS» with interest rates starting at 3 percent and surging to 7–12 percent within a year.
