Peter Yama (born 12 December 1955) is a businessman and Papua New Guinean politician. He is the current governor for

Madang Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century. Histo ...

Province. Previously he was Member of Parliament for Usino Bundi between 1994–1997 and 2002-2007. In 2003 he succeeded

Peter O'Neill Peter Charles Paire O'Neill (born 13 February 1965) is a Papua New Guinean politician who served as the seventh Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 2011 to 2019. From 2002 until the present he served as Member of Parliament for Ialibu-Pan ...

as the Minister of Labour and Industrial Relations under Prime Minister

Michael Somare Sir Michael Thomas Somare (9 April 1936 – 26 February 2021) was a Papua New Guinean politician. Widely called the "father of the nation" (), he was the first Prime Minister after independence. At the time of his death, Somare was also the lo ...

. Prior to this, he was appointed Minister for Transport and Works in 1996. Yama is the head of Yama Security Services Ltd, which is a subsidiary of his Yama Group of companies. He has an extensive property portfolio and owns the Smugglers Inn hotel in

Controversies

Yama was referred to the

Public Prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

on July 1997 amid allegations of misconduct which included, "improper application and failure to acquit EDF and other public funds, conflict of interest, using his position to obtain private a icbank loan and attempting to purchase 2 ships from the government below market price". The matter was then referred to a leadership tribunal, which investigates alleged cases of misconduct by ministers and senior public officials, and which recommended the dismissal of Yama from his office in December 2004. This decision was ultimately overturned in February 2005 due to insufficient evidence on the majority of the counts. Yama was, however, fined K1000 for having been biased in his distribution of PGK1.6 million under the Rural Transport Development Program to his then Sumkar electorate. In 2002 Yama issued a complaint against the State for PGK38.7 million, alleging that he had been prevented access to a piece of land leased to him in 1988. Attorney General Zacchary Gelu awarded Yama a PGK15.5 million Deed of Settlement in compensation for lost earnings. However, in 2010 a government Commission of Inquiry found that Yama's claim had been a fraudulent one, as it had failed to comply with mandatory procedural requirements and had been filed in respect of a plot of land that did not exist. The Commission referred Yama for criminal prosecution for making an unlawful claim and ordered that civil action be taken against Yama for unpaid land rentals to the effect of PGK61,015. In December 2009, Yama was awarded PGK7.6 million in a case against Motor Vehicle Insurance Limited for breach of contract. However, Bank of South Pacific (BSP) attempted to secure this money, claiming that Yama had outstanding debts. Yama denied that he had any existing debts with BSP and brought charges of fraud against the bank. Two

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executives at BSP were subsequently arrested as a consequence of this action. The executives, Robin Fleming and John Maddison, were subsequently released on bail. Australian law firm Gadens Lawyers, which represented BSP in the court action against Yama, were forced to withdraw their involvement in the case following physical threats to their legal team by armed groups in Port Moresby.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yama, Peter Living people 1955 births Governors of Madang Province Members of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea Government ministers of Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinean businesspeople