Landowners

Acting Secretary for the Department of Petorleum and Energy, Kepsie Puiye, told Loop PNG that all calculations on how much in royalties to be paid to landowners from Papa, Lea Lea, Porebada, and Boera has been done.

The landowners from the four villages threatened to stop operations at the plant site on Monday (Queens Birthday) over outstanding royalties which have yet to be paid despite concluding all pre-requisites.

This will come from the sale of gold from the gold mine.

This is the first of five major commitments outlined in the revised Tolukuma Gold Mine memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed yesterday in Port Moresby.

The commitments were announced by Mining Minister, Byron Chan, who urged the landowenrs to look after their money.

This has been made possible through a project initiated by the Ok Tedi Development Foundation (OTDF).

OTDF has engaged Israeli agro-business company, Innovative Agro Industries (IAI), to implement the project. The six villages involved are Atemkit, Finalbin, Bultem, Kavorabip, Migalsimbip and Wangbin.

This is from a now united landowners’ voice and group, who have reconciled with each other and have come up with a resolution to stop BCL once and for all.

17 years after the Bougainville conflict, the Me'ekamui Government of Unity (MGU) and the Special Mining Lease (SML) customary landowner groups have been working separately and often in conflict with each other.

However, in a joint press statement on March 3, the two landowner leaders have revealed that they have reconciled and are now working to stop BCL together.

Asi said there is no approval given by authorities to stage the protest.

The PPC, who was at the site this morning told Loop PNG that he had warned landowners not to cause any damage to the plant site but to allow the operation to continue as normal.

He had advised them that the protest was illegal and while the landowners have been reluctant to back off, they promised to do it peacefully.

Asi said his men are on the ground to protect facilities and to ensure the protest does not turn rowdy.

Central Province Pressure Group spokesperson, Lucielle Paru, says the land has been sold to people who had no right over it.

The meet was held to address the issue of the illegal land grabs that are taking place in Central and the recent land grab of Manumanu that had two high profile ministers step aside from their portfolios for allegations of involvement.

From Gabadi, Kairuku-Hiri, Paru said the land itself, as per the Defence organisation, is not suitable for a naval base and that it goes 10 kilometres inland.

Sonk said this in response to statements by beneficiary groups from the Wellhead and Facilities areas of PDL 1 (Hides), PDL 2 (Kutubu), PDL 7 (Hides 4) and, PDL 8 (Angore) who have refused outright the vendor finance option.

They claimed that KPHL is riddled with a massive debt of over K9 billion and said there will be no value to the shares they acquire.

The group also said they are still awaiting a response from the Government on ‘14 Critical Demands’ which they presented to the Deputy Prime Minister, Leo Dion, on November 2016.

David Kaya and his lawyer, Philip Kamen, will stand trial in Daru on March 6, 2017.

They appeared for mention before Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika, who agreed that the matter should be transferred to the Western Province as that is where most of the witnesses are based.

Kaya, who is a landowner representative, and Kamen are in court over allegations they misused K5 million, monies belonging to the landowners of East Awin in North Fly.

He said various orders issued by Courts by various landowners have put a stop to the disbursement of the funds.

Until those cases are resolved, the Government will not be paying the landowners, explained the PM.

He said the Government has been in close discussion with all the landowners to resolve the issues amicably before the funds are disbursed.

“We are not in the business of withholding the benefits of the landowners that was signed in the UBS agreement by the previous government and landowners in Kokopo, but working to disburse the funds.”

The option to acquire shares in Kumul Petroleum (Kroton) Limited is part of a range of benefits agreed to by the Government and set out in the Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement or UBSA for the benefits of the landowners and Provincial Governments along the footprint of the PNGLNG project.

Under the UBSA the State granted to these beneficiaries a commercial option to buy a 25.75% of the shares in Kroton No2 Limited, the special purpose company that held the States 16.75% interest in the PNG LNG Project.