Clans’ K200m on hold

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By MALUM NALU
PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says more than K200 million in benefits for PNG LNG Project landowners are sitting in trust accounts at the Bank of PNG.
He told Parliament yesterday that the benefits for landowners in Hela and other LNG-impacted provinces were awaiting the clearance from the courts, as regards to cases initiated by the landowners themselves, before they are released. O’Neill said until the cases were resolved, all payments would be held.
“The orders that have been given to the Government by the National Court and Supreme Court, initiated by various landowners against themselves and against Government, are stopping us from making payments to individuals and proper landowners from funds that are Prime Minister Peter O’Neill after the first sitting of Parliament available,” he said.

Lagaip-Porgera MP Nixon Mangape had queried during the opening session of Parliament yesterday when the landowners would receive their benefits.
He cited the recent cases at Hides where landowners stopped the project in protest over the non-payment of benefits.
He said K35 million for the Hides landowners was available but a court order had stopped the payment to landowners.
“A cheque for K35 million has been written but is still held by Treasury. It will only be released when those court orders have been lifted,” O’Neill said.
“We are talking to all the litigants, all the landowners, to try and resolve all the issues amicably so that we can pay the landowners the rightful benefits they deserve.
“We are not in the business of withholding the benefits that the previous government agreed to in the UBSA signed in Kokopo.
“We can only do so when the seven or eight cases initiated by the landowners are fully discharged. That is where we are.
“It is certainly beyond the control of Government. It is in the hands of the courts.”
He said the Solicitor-General had been directed to settle the matters because they were affecting the landowners in the Petroleum Development Licence areas.
“We want to make sure that they receive the benefits that they are entitled to,” he said.
“We are working closely with leaders of those provinces, leaders of those landowner groups, we are also working closely with all the developers in trying to resolve all these matters as quickly as possible.”