May 26, 2023 The National Main Stories

By REBECCA KUKU and AILEEN KWARAGU

BRYAN Kramer has been dismissed as the Member of Parliament for Madang Open, according to a dismissal notice signed by the governor-general, Sir Bob Dadae, on Wednesday.

The Office of the Governor-General confirmed yesterday that the instrument of dismissal was signed on the advice of the Leadership Tribunal. When queried on why Sir Bob signed the dismissal notice on a Leadership Tribunal letterhead, a Government House spokesperson said: “As long as instruments are from constitutional office and other lawful authorities mandated to provide advice to the GG, he can execute these instruments which are normally on their letterheads.”

Last night Kramer replied with one word, “No!” when The National asked him if he was aware that he had been dismissed.
He said he had an appeal on foot in court and would await its outcome.

Prime Minister James Marape and the Speaker Job Pomat also said they were not aware of Kramer’s dismissal.

In a letter dated May 24, and purportedly signed by the governor-general, Kramer was dismissed as Member for Madang Open in accordance with the recommendations of the Leadership Tribunal which found him guilty of misconduct in office.

The tribunal recommended on May 1 that Kramer be dismissed from office, and fined K10,000 after he was found guilty of seven of the 13 misconduct allegations in February this year.

The seven counts of misconduct were in two categories.

The first category covered his guilty verdict of scandalising the judiciary, which warranted the tribunal’s recommendation for dismissal from office.

The second category covered five counts of misconduct relating to the decisions of the Madang district development authority board in applying for its district services improvement programme (DSIP) fund.

The Speaker’s Office said they have not yet received a copy of the instrument from the Governor-General’s Office, dismissing Kramer. But once they do, the Speaker will announce in Parliament that Kramer has been dismissed as the Member of Parliament for Madang Open, and the seat will be declared vacant.

“The process is that, after the tribunal finds a leader guilty of misconduct in office and recommend the leader’s dismissal, the Tribunal then writes to the Governor-General’s Office to execute the instrument of dismissal.
Once the instrument is executed, it is sent to the Speaker to announce formally that the leader has been dismissed and a vacancy exists in the seat,”

“At this stage, the Speaker’s Office has not received the instrument dismissing Kramer, for the Office of the Member of Parliament for Madang Open,” the Speaker’s Office said.

Kramer was elected into Parliament in the General Election 2017.

He founded the Allegiance Party in 2018 and had nine candidates contest in the GE22. But none was elected leaving him the only member.
He first contested the Madang Open seat in 2007, at the age of 31, and finished seventh.

He tried again in the GE12 and finally won in 2017 under the ruling Pangu Party.

In June 2018, Kramer made a call on the civil society to boycott buying of newspapers for not reporting factual news and biased news.

He served at the police minister in 2018, justice and attorney-general minister in 2020, and labour and immigration minister in 2022.