By BONNIE ABOLA
NO PUBLIC land should be auctioned.
“It is ridiculous,” a Lae businessman said.
Fred Wak, owner of the Highway Inn on Markham Road, said this would leave many people suffering.
“The very people that the proposed system wanted to protect will miss out because those with money and influence will buy all the land.”
Mr Wak was commenting on media reports on the 2006 Land Task Force report headed by National Research Institute director Dr Thomas Webster.
One of the recommendations to auction all public land led to a public outcry from those concerned.
It was not known whether the Government would act on any recommendation from the report.
However, Mr Wak said safety nets should be designed to avoid the recurrence of issues confronting land administration, dispute settlement and customary land development.
He said putting the land under the gavel would open flood gates for more problems.
He said there were allegations of corrupt practices in the allocation of land, compounded by the slow processing of titles amongst other things, and the objectives of the reforms would not be achieved.
“It is not the system but the people who are in the system that are not working. I’m afraid that we will waste time, effort and even money if we change the system, and retain the same people to carry out the work and ensure that the laws are followed.
“They lived in a work culture that will be very difficult to change over night. They had become stale and should move on.”
Mr Wak called on the Government to look very carefully at the report and make the best decision for the people and for PNG.