Govt, officials breaking rules at the expense of simple people

ANOTHER expensive commission of inquiry is promised and we should feel robbed.
There are many people who know how government land can be acquired by private individuals and companies.
We were taught that the rules are pretty simple. The government acquires land from the recognised traditional owners. It is registered as land available for developers. Carefully surveyed areas are made available for development and opportunities are given, widely publicised, to individuals and organisations to present plans and offer payment for the lease of the  property.
A careful, rules based, impartial assessment is made of the applications and a decision is made to award the lease. It comes with obligations to begin to implement the plans within a clear period.
If development does not occur within the period agreed the leaseholder loses the land and it is readvertised so that others can compete for it.
The reality is very different. People acquire the right to develop, do nothing and sell their rights to others. At this point the government in a fair and impartial process rejects the transfer of title requests and takes back the title.
Instead, we see our officials accepting unacceptable arrangements, many of which involve the state purchasing undeveloped land from those who fail to meet their obligations.
At extraordinarily inflated prices people sell their leases to the same government which actually owns the titles. Sometimes this happens even before the leaseholder actually pays what was agreed to.
So the government buys what it already owns and, at the expense of simple people who are not receiving basic services,   pay our money to people who have no right to receive it.
Imagine a government motor vehicle being offered for sale to the most competitive bidder being sold to a person who doesn’t pay and then sells the same vehicle back to the government.
It is a simple and murderous method for passing our funds to an individual who skips off with the profit and leaves, for example, the families of long serving deceased defence force personnel  still begging for their entitlements to be paid out.
The people involved can be seen cruising in their dark glassed vehicles and living the high life in hotels in Moresby and abroad, obese spouses and children in tow, whilst families, many thin and inadequately housed,  continue to be denied their rights to the benefits they are entitled to. They listen to the promises, wait patiently for the entitlements they were promised and fail to make the connection between their betrayal by their government to the conditions in which they miserably and patiently  live.
The elected officials and their comfortable, criminally complicit state employees simply ignore the rights of us all and engorge themselves at our expense.

Lawrence Stephens
Port Moresby