‘We can learn from mistakes’

 THE nation can possibly manage huge revenues transparently by ‘learning from its past mistakes’, Department of Treasury acting secretary Dairi Vele said.

He was responding to a question on how and if Papua New Guinea can manage its revenue from projects.

Speaking at a recent dialogue in Port Moresby, Vele said receipts from the PNG LNG project and other resource projects can together overheat the economy.

The Internal Revenue Commission confirmed that revenue from the industry constitutes between 70%-80% of the government’s revenue.

Vele said: “We need to be able to learn from past lessons of other countries and that of PNG.”

He said the extractive industries transparency initiative (EITI), which PNG is a candidate nation, was one way towards achieving transparency when dealing with resource receipts.

“EITI allow us to track good policies, and to see how much money is pumped into districts,” he said.