Association: Luma hijacked contract

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
THE Chimbu Highlands Highway Landowners Association is now questioning the legality of the Highlands Highway Rehabilitation Programme contract awarded to Mori Resource Ltd.
The landowners claim Works Department collaborated with Wera Mori, the owner of Mori Resource Ltd, to hijack the contract.
Association general secretary Kinstone Womai said yesterday the contract had been initially awarded to Homeland Joint Venture through a ministerial pre-commitment.
Womai has had correspondence from different governments departments awarding the contract to Homeland Joint Venture bound into a book.
The contract was awarded to Homeland Joint Venture by the then works minister Don Polye through a ministerial pre-commitment in a letter dated Feb 2, 2009.
Homeland managing director Peter Kama wrote an acceptance letter dated March 9, 2009, addressed to Works Secretary Joel Luma accepting the contract.
The documents say the contract was awarded after Homeland made a presentation using global position system technology on the verification exercise to be carried on the highway project.
The presentation was done on Jan 15-16, 2009, at the Works Department headquarters.
Based on the presentation known as the Simbu Model, Polye wrote to Luma in a letter dated Feb 2, 2009, to engage Homeland to help in the verification exercise with the use of the GPS technology.
Womai said at that time Mori Resource Ltd was sub-contracted to Homeland.
He said through a minor brief from the Works Department the same contract was re-directed to Mori Resource Ltd on a consultancy service.
The documents with Womai show the minor brief contract agreement was signed between Luma and Mori on March 19, 2009, for a contract value of K288,875.40.
The contract agreement said this amount was a lump sum mobilisation payment for provision of consulting services on the highway project in Chimbu.
Womai said the K288,875.40 contract turned into an almost K5 million contract, and added that the landowners wanted to know whether proper procedures were followed in awarding the contract.
He said as far as the landowners were concerned the contract was not legally binding as claimed by Luma in his full page advertisement in the Post Courier on Monday.
He said the contract was awarded through internal arrangements and not through ministerial pre-commitments or the Central Supply and Tenders Board.
Kama wrote a complaint letter dated Feb 1, 2009, and addressed it to State solicitor George Minjihau expressing grave concern that his contract had been re-directed to a sub-contractor, Mori Resource Limited.