Managing Director for Livestock Development Corporation (LDC), Terry Koim has clarified that LDC was not mistaken by selling the land described as Section 159, Lot 5 to Sky Health and Medical.
In a media conference yesterday afternoon, Mr Koim said they followed every legal process to sell the land after no favourable response from the Kundiawa Gembogl District Development Authority.
He clarified that former Minister for Agriculture John Simon had verbally agreed with former MP for Kundiawa Gembogl Willie Onguglo to set up a cold storage facility on the land portion in question.
The Kundiawa DDA then set up the storage facility at the value of more than K2m to help farmers in the district to sell their produce in Port Moresby.
Mr Koim said despite writing to the Kundiawa Gebogl DDA to submit an expression of interest to occupy and get the title of the land, no understanding was reached or signed.
“We made three attempts to offer the Title of the land to Kundiawa Gembogl DDA but our attempts were snubbed.
“As far as LDC is concerned, we have operated within the law and have been very lenient to Kundiawa Gembogl DDA with respect to the said land.
“The onus is on the administration of KGDDA to explain why they messed it up instead of trying to find fault with LDC or go out to the media to seek sympathy of the unsuspecting population,” Koim said.
Mr Koim further clarified that because Kundiawa Gembogl DDA negligence for not responding to LDC’s query, the LDC Board decided to sell the land to local SME, Sky Health and Medical to build the hospital.
He also mentioned that he will be setting up an investigating team to look into how the land Portion 1468 was given to Glory Estate Ltd without a single dime paid to the government or LDC.
According to the agreement in December 12, 2014 between LDC and Glory Estate Ltd (GEL), about 70 percent of land Portion 1468 will be used for commercial purposes by GEL while LDC takes 30 per cent stake of the land.
“We will get to the bottom of this and seek legal advice on how to recoup the land.