Papua New Guinea's government has reiterated its claim that a cheque it wrote to the Bougainville government did not bounce.
Charles Abel Photo: UNDP
On Wednesday Bougainville's President John Momis told RNZ Pacific that a US$1.5 million dollar cheque, given by PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill late last month, had bounced.
It was an initial payment on hundreds of millions of kina reportedly owed to Bougainville towards preparations for next year's independence referendum.
Mr O'Neill yesterday insisted the cheque had been cleared, saying to avoid fraud the cheque required a covering letter from the secretary of finance before it could be cleared.
PNG's treasurer Charles Abel told parliament he'd been trying to locate where the information of the bounced cheque has come from.
"It is false. There is no occurrence of a bounced cheque. All the feedback I'm getting from the institutions including the Bank of Papua New Guinea, the Department of Finance, there is no such thing as a bounced cheque to the autonomous Bougainville government.
"I encuorage everyone, get your facts and figures correct, because you are causing sort of unnecessary angst and concern in the community."
