Photo: AIRBRIDGECARGO/PR IMAGE
APEC is an acronym for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, an organization comprising 21 nations in the region. As you would imagine, the logistics of hosting an APEC meeting is a nightmare come true.
Last year’s APEC summit took place in November in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. To allow the 10,000 or so delegates and guests to move from place to place, hundreds of cars were purchased by the tiny nation's government and loaned to people involved in the event.
Three or so months later, reports surfaced of local authorities being on a hunt to recover 284 of these cars, as those who took possession of the vehicles didn’t bother to return them.
According to Radio NZ, the country’s Department of Finance asked local police for help in recovering a number of “assets purchased over the last three years” for the APEC summit, including the said cars. The missing vehicles vary in shape and size from Toyota Land Cruisers to Maserati Quattroporte and Bentley Flying Spurs.
Papua New Guinea is currently struggling to piece together the puzzle of what’s missing, with the goal of tracking down the culprits and recovering the goods.
"All state assets especially vehicles purchased by Government agencies and authorized for certain proposes have been claimed by certain individuals through unlawful means," Superintendent Dennis Corcoran, the head of the State Asset Recovery unit, was quoted as saying by the source.
"Anyone obtained or is in possession of state asset through illegal means will be arrested and charged."
The official also warns he is in the possession of the list of people who signed the cars out in November.
So far, police have uncovered that about nine of the missing cars have been stolen, several damaged and have even arrested a man for siphoning fuel from the cars parked in a government facility.
Three or so months later, reports surfaced of local authorities being on a hunt to recover 284 of these cars, as those who took possession of the vehicles didn’t bother to return them.
According to Radio NZ, the country’s Department of Finance asked local police for help in recovering a number of “assets purchased over the last three years” for the APEC summit, including the said cars. The missing vehicles vary in shape and size from Toyota Land Cruisers to Maserati Quattroporte and Bentley Flying Spurs.
Papua New Guinea is currently struggling to piece together the puzzle of what’s missing, with the goal of tracking down the culprits and recovering the goods.
"All state assets especially vehicles purchased by Government agencies and authorized for certain proposes have been claimed by certain individuals through unlawful means," Superintendent Dennis Corcoran, the head of the State Asset Recovery unit, was quoted as saying by the source.
"Anyone obtained or is in possession of state asset through illegal means will be arrested and charged."
The official also warns he is in the possession of the list of people who signed the cars out in November.
So far, police have uncovered that about nine of the missing cars have been stolen, several damaged and have even arrested a man for siphoning fuel from the cars parked in a government facility.
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