The Office of the Ombudsman has advised the Cook Islands News to lodge a complaint with Parliamentary Services, advising them of concerns in relation to the release of the MPs travel costs between July 1 to September 30, 2023.
Cook Islands current PM and former PM face fraud charges
16 Mar, 2021 03:10 AM
3 minutes to read
RNZ
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown and former prime minister and MP Henry Puna are facing charges of fraud and two counts of improper payment of public money.
Norman George, counsel for the prosecution, submitted that Brown and Puna conspired to arrange for two charter flights funded out of the public purse to travel to the northern islands of Penryhn and Pukapuka.
The flights uplifted the two winning candidates from those islands and returned them to Rarotonga to form a government after the June 2018 general elections.