Basil: Include host districts with royalty distribution

 DEPUTY Opposition Leader Sam Basil has urged the Government to include district administrations in the management and distribution of royalties for landowning communities.

He said districts especially in mine impacted areas such as Wau-Bulolo have little to say in how funds from mining activities are used appropriately and that often leads to the lack of development in these areas.

“I want us to take into consideration the host districts of mining activities,” Basil said.

“My district has been engaged in the mining in the last 100 years and we have a lot of mining activities in happening in our district.

“We have the power in putting up our district authorities also we acknowledge the provincial government and we understand the politics of the day but  once the district member and the provincial governor do not have a formal understanding of any issues, we will tend to find that with the existing laws, the districts will be disadvantage because of politics.

“I understand in any district in PNG we do not have a say in terms of royalty payments.

“We have nothing and we have to fight with the provincial governments in order to bring some services back using the royalties.

“But it’s not good for us members of parliaments to have a tassel with our provincial governments because the law says the provincial governments will receive benefits in royalties and others but we forget the districts.”