The Record That Actually Needs Setting Straight- Jacob Anga’s NAC Past Is Not “Unfounded Attacks”, It’s Why He Was Fired

by PAUL L. KEBAIJA

The sudden flood of glowing tributes to Jacob Roland Anga is not organic. It is a coordinated image-repair campaign. Bloggers and soft pieces are being deployed to bury a simple, stubborn fact: Anga was removed from NAC once before for serious financial misconduct. Now he is back as Chairman, and the same patterns are reappearing.

Let us deal with the claims one by one.

1. “Proven record” and “unyielding integrity”
Anga’s supporters parade his KPMG, PwC and EY years and his MAICD letters as if they are a force-field against scrutiny. They are not. The same man who lectures on IFRS and corporate governance was, according to multiple NAC sources and internal accounts, terminated after an around-the-world trip (heavily Europe-focused) while serving as Head of Audit and General Manager Finance & Strategic Business. The allegation that has never been properly answered in public is that he used the NAC corporate credit card to fund personal travel for his wives, casino hopping, and lavish expenses that sources inside the corporation still describe as running into the hundreds of millions of kina. He was sidelined, investigated, and given the boot. That is not “unfounded.” That is why he left.

A man fired for abusing the company visa card does not get to wrap himself in “financial integrity” simply because he once worked at the Big Four.

2. “Board Chairman overseeing 22 national airports” — and quietly running the show.
The moment Anga returned as Chairman he began operating like the Managing Director. He attempted to advertise the MD position himself outside the established Public Service and DPM processes, an illegal move that only stopped when NAC management and oversight bodies forced the process to halt. He is now reportedly pushing another failed sector figure from the Western Highlands into the MD role by word-of-mouth and hand-picking rather than open, competitive appointment.

That is not leadership. That is capturing the organisation so that “his people” control contracts, procurement and daily operations.

3. Enriching himself and his circle through contracts
While Chairman of the very body that awards multi-million-kina airport upgrade works, Anga’s private company, JRA Limited, has been positioned to manage and run rural airstrips. This is the textbook definition of conflict of interest. Sources close to recent tenders further allege that large sums landed in a particular board-linked personal account shortly after a major contractor was awarded airport upgrade works. Whether the recipient is the Chairman, another board member, or a proxy, the public has a right to know. Fraud Squad and the Ombudsman Commission should freeze and examine the relevant personal bank accounts of NAC Board members immediately.

JRA Limited itself is not a clean vehicle. Former associates, including an operations manager who had a very public falling-out with Anga, have described questionable business practices. Yet this is the company now circling rural aviation assets while its owner sits at the head of the NAC board table.

4. The APEC and Jacksons claims
Yes, work happened around APEC 2018 and Jacksons upgrades. Many people were involved. Claiming sole credit while erasing the fact that he was later removed for credit-card abuse is classic revisionism. Past project involvement does not wash away subsequent termination for misuse of public funds.

5. The real question
Papua New Guineans stand for hours in airport queues while terminals decay and rural airstrips remain neglected. Meanwhile the Chairman — a man previously sacked from the same organisation for treating the corporate credit card like a personal ATM — is accused of installing loyalists, steering work toward his own company, and benefiting from the very contracts he oversees.

International audit experience and an MBA from Melbourne mean nothing if the lived record at NAC is one of personal enrichment and process-busting. Credentials without integrity are just expensive wallpaper.

The Fraud Squad, Public Service Commission, Department of Personnel Management and the Ombudsman do not need another glossy blog post. They need to open the bank accounts, the credit-card records from his earlier tenure, the tender files, and the JRA Limited contracts.

Jacob Anga’s defenders want the public to look at the polished CV.
The public should look at why he was fired the first time and what he is doing the second time.

That is the record that actually needs setting straight.

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