ACT NOW!

Community advocacy organization ACT NOW! Launched the website on Wednesday June 14, 2023 to provide the general public, officials and academics with impartial and non-partisan information on the work of each District Development Authority, with the ultimate aim of helping to improve the quality of local infrastructure and service delivery.

This year, District Development Authorities (DDAs) will be spending about K2 billion in government grants, and ACT NOW! says there is little information available to the public on how those tax payer monies being are used.

The report reveals that these financial institutions have offered at least K300 million in available credit to the five largest exporters of tropical logs in PNG since 2000.

The report is titled The Money behind the Chainsaws was jointly compiled by ACT Now! and Jubilee Australia. According to ACT Now! Campaign Manager, Eddie Tanago, the money given by the banks to logging companies may be higher.

This is to help address the urgent need for better information at all levels of society about customary land, its values and threats.

Customary land is the most valuable asset to most Papua New Guineans buts its role and importance are often misunderstood, especially by outsiders.

The organisation made the call on its website recently, urging the summit to focus on the estimated three million rural farmers in the country.

This follows the recent announcement of the event by Minister for Agriculture, Benny Allan.

Author Eddie Tanago states that the summit must promote the expansion of industrial agriculture, which is driven by outsiders who want to dispose local farmers and exploit workers.

Act Now!, in its paper ‘CUSTOMARY LAND REGISTRATION: Too Dangerous To Touch’, says once dispossessed, people can no longer rely on their land to provide the necessities of life.

“They are forced to become dependent on money and they start to lose their culture and identity.

“Attempts by government to move people off their land and give control to outsiders is ideologically driven and supported by the mistaken belief land needs to be ‘freed up’ and given over to large-scale projects in order to bring ‘development’.

“The Singapore authorities have a policy of zero tolerance for corruption and money laundering” says Campaign Coordinator Eddie Tanago, “but Australia allows numerous PNG politicians and senior public servants to spend well beyond their means in Australia while seemingly turning a blind eye”.

Last week, an American and Singaporean couple were sentenced to six years jail in Singapore for a US$3.6 million fraud involving Papua New Guinea government funds intended for a community college program.