By JOE WAUGLA
On 31 March 2026, three of the most powerful men in the Papua New Guinea Defence Organisation sat together in a confidential meeting and signed off on Decision No. 05/2026. Their decision: lift K20 million out of the Defence Commercial Support Program (CSP) Trust Account at Bank South Pacific and use it to acquire shares in National Banking Corporation Limited at sixty toea each.
The order is signed by Hon. Dr Billy Joseph, Minister for Defence and Chairman of the Council; by Hari John Akipe, Secretary of Defence; and by Rear Admiral Philip Polewara, Chief of Defence Force. Four weeks later, on 28 April 2026, Secretary Akipe wrote to the BSP Group CEO directing the transfer from CSP Trust Account No. 1000687747 into NBC Seed Capital Raise Account No. 20005786 at the Vision City Branch. The paper trail is clean. The questions it leaves behind are not.
The CSP is not general revenue. It is the PNGDF's designated commercial arm and trust vehicle, capitalised in significant part by rents from married quarters and other in-house income — money traceable, in principle, back to the men and women in uniform. Its declared purpose has been welfare, infrastructure, operational enhancement, and immediate logistics: barracks, hospitals, regimental aid posts, disaster response. In an earlier round of CSP-misuse allegations in 2023, the Defence Department's own line was that the Council "protected and guided" the fund and froze expenditure to enforce the trust deed.
The same Council has now authorised K20 million of that fund into a commercial bank's pre-IPO equity raise.
Taurama Military Hospital and regimental aid posts need urgent revamp. Many married quarters lack basic white goods. PNGDF aviation has been so hollowed out that one CASA CN-235 had its engines restarted in September 2025 after eight years on the ground. On 23 April 2026 between the Council's decision and Akipe's transfer letter Prime Minister James Marape ordered a full investigation into the 2024 PNGDF Integrated Force Audit, apologised to the nation for "inefficiencies … particularly at Murray Barracks," and confirmed formal notices had been issued to both Akipe and Polewara to respond. Defence Minister Joseph stepped aside that same month, amid a separate recruitment scandal.
Against that backdrop, Decision 05/2026 is not a routine investment. It is a choice, made by the same officials now under formal notice, to move K20 million of soldier-linked trust money into bank shares while the force lives in conditions the Prime Minister himself has called a national embarrassment.
A persistent claim in Murray Barracks circles holds that this transaction or an earlier version involving Paga Hill SEZ is the real reason former CDF Major General Mark Goina was suspended in August 2023 and removed in May 2024. The public timeline does not support that specific causal claim: Decision 05/2026 post-dates Goina's removal by nearly two years. What the court record does show is Goina's own sworn allegation that the Defence Minister was issuing him political instructions on appointments and discharges, "raising significant concerns of political interference into the functions of the military." That allegation was never adjudicated on its merits.
The questions that demand answers
The documents do not, on their face, prove personal enrichment. They prove a policy choice. That choice raises questions Joseph, Akipe and Polewara should be made to answer in writing, in public, and to Parliament:
Does the CSP trust deed permit equity investment in a commercial bank's seed capital raise? Release the deed.
What was the business case put to Council on 31 March 2026? Release it.
Was a Commander's submission for barracks, hospital or married-quarters funding declined or deferred in the lead-up to this decision? Disclose it.
Why was the K20 million transferred on 28 April five days after the PM ordered an audit-findings investigation that formally named Akipe and Polewara?
Did the acting Defence Minister Marape himself sight, ratify, or rescind Decision 05/2026?
The Public Accounts Committee, the Auditor-General, and the Ombudsman Commission each have a clear interest. Until the trust deed and the business case are on the table, this transaction will be read by the rank and file the only way it can be read: as a force-funded down payment on a banking play, made by men who could not or would not find K20 million for the troops who pay for the trust in the first place.
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