Agiru confident of LNG benefits

 HELA Governor Anderson Agiru is confident of securing tangible benefits for the people in the province.

He said in a statement he recently held talks with several senior cabinet ministers and officials from ExxonMobil on issues he had raised regarding the LNG project.

“(I am) getting positive feedback from ExxonMobil and I am grateful to Peter Graham and the team. They are responding quickly and the discussions we’ve held are very encouraging,” Agiru said.

“Tari is the only provincial headquarter in Papua New Guinea without any kind of tar-sealed roads,” he said. 

“It is also a provincial capital without any vacant state land. It is the only provincial headquarter without electricity and communication lines connected.

“Therefore,the LNG capital of PNG is nothing but a dusty town with few houses built during the colonial era.”

Agiru said he was empowered under the organic law on provincial and local level government and as chairman of the provincial planning committee to set the development agenda for Hela.

“That is my responsibility to do so. 

“Finance Minister James Marape has to focus on how he can develop Tari-Pori, his district,” he said. 

“Marape says money has gone to the province but all of those payments have gone to individuals and so-called landowner leaders.”

Agiru said the provincial government had no record of the payments made.