Ok Tedi foundation hopes K132mil will be released

The National Business

Ok Tedi Development Foundation (OTDF) is hopeful that K132 million of the Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA) component of development funds from the Western Province People’s Dividend Trust Fund (WPPDTF) will now be released.
This follows Waigani National Court judge Derek Hartshorn’s Aug 8 dismissal of all matters in a court action brought by one Pastor Steven Bagari and six others.
All audits conducted by a team from the Department of the Prime Minister and the National Executive Council, led by internal audit consultant Andy Peperaija Pape, have been completed.
The audit was completed on Aug 14 and handed over to Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari.
The audit team declared that the OTDF audit of all CMCA WPPDTF funding and associated project nomination through to contract award and implementation was “clean, transparent and in accordance with all associated guidelines”.
Pape complemented OTDF in this regard, saying: “I would like to take this time on behalf of the audit team to acknowledge the tremendous effort and time each of you devoted to assisting the team to successfully conduct the physical inspection phase of the audit.
You are doing a fantastic job over there.”
Three high-impact projects already approved by former Minister for Mines Byron Chan that remain to be funded through the WPPDTF and implemented are:

  • Livelihood Development Package Programme that will be integrated into the WestAgro Master Plan;
  • Relocation for three South Fly delta villages; and,
  • Western Province Education Improvement Strategy.

Ok Tedi Development Foundation chief executive Ian Middleton said despite the long delay in funding those high-impact development projects and associated frustration from many CMCA communities, especially those across the
South Fly region, “OTDF remains committed to delivering these on behalf of the CMCA people, in the same transparent manner as it has for all previous CMCA WPPDTF funded projects and programmes”.