Finance Minister and Tari-Pori MP, James Marape, has urged all landowners living in Port Moresby to return home and participate in the Landowner Beneficiaries Identification (LOBID) exercise.
He said individuals are claiming to be genuine landowners when they are not.
Speaking this morning as a local MP from Tari in Hela Province, Finance Minister Marape called on all landowners to go home and identify their land.
He said many ‘paper landowners’ are roaming the streets of Port Moresby without any purpose in life.
“Can we have all those so-called landowner leaders living in Port Moresby go home and help with the LOBID exercise?
“Go sanap lo baret kaukau blo yu, or diwai blo yu or maunten blo yu na tokim mipla olsem yu tru tru papa graun”.
Minister Marape also admitted that the clan vetting exercise was not done properly in the past as the Government was only interested in their benefit and not the landowners.
“I, as the local leader, must admit that we did a mistake by not doing the clan vetting exercise and gave out licenses.”
Minister Marape along with Hela Governor Philip Undialu and other provincial leaders on Wednesday received Petroleum Minister Fabian Pok and his officers in Hela as they start the LOBID exercise.