Call for govt to honour MoAs

Main Stories, National
Source:

The National, Tuesday October 8th, 2013

 FORMER Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan has warned the Government to honour its obligations under various memoranda of agreement by paying arrears in major extractive industries. 

Sir Julius, now the New Ireland Governor, said no affected parties should be forced to go to court and arbitration to order the State to pay for commitments made.

He said the bureaucracy in Waigani had a poor record of honouring Government’s commitments relating to agreements with the provinces.

He was responding to a media report yesterday regarding the order by an arbitrator that PNG must fulfill its commitments to the Solwara 1 seabed mining in New Ireland.

Sir Julius said the Government owed New Ireland more than K120 million in outstanding SSG arrears and had failed to implement projects under the Lihir MoA.

The Government has been ordered to pay K295 million to Nautilus Minerals, the developer of the project, by Oct 23.

Sydney-based arbitrator Murray Gleeson issued an award in favour Nautilus Minerals in respect of issues that were the subject of a notice of arbitration initiated by the Government.