Airports asked to reconsider awards of projects

THE State and the National Airport Corporation have been asked to reconsider their decision to award fencing and other maintenance work to two non-landowner companies recently.
The landowners, led by Chief Alembo Nangarara, the chairman of the Tari Town Landowners Group Association Inc, said the contracts were awarded to two companies, one owned by an Engan and the other by a politician from Hela.
However, Minister for Civil Aviation Alfred Manase said he had no control over the tender process of the Asian Development Bank project that was stringent and not even the chief executive or himself could manipulate it.
Nangarara said the landowners of Tari Town and Tari Airport, consisting of 12 clans, had been overlooked although they submitted their interest to be awarded the contract when it was out on tender.
Nangarara said the land on which the Tari Airport and the Tari Town were on was not State land but a State lease.
He said none of the 12 landowners clans had benefited from compensation or the lease of the land.
He said some compensation were made by the State but those funds had gone missing and someleaders and the Hela government knew where the funds were and were in a better position to explain how the K40 million was used.
He said that while the issue of compensation was still outstanding, the State had gone ahead and put fencing and maintenance work on the airport on tender.