Clan-vetting issues held back funds: Exec

By DALE LUMA
SUBSTANTIAL landowner money have been sitting in trust with the Bank of Papua New Guinea (BPNG) and the Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) because of clan-vetting issues, managing director Augustine Mano says.
Mano told the 2021 Mining and Petroleum Conference yesterday that it had been eight years now and up to about K1 billion was still being held in trust.
“Hopefully, if we can find a way around that than investments can be made and funds can be utilised,” he said.
Providing an update on MRDC’s investments, Mano said current investment portfolio sat at K6.7 billion.
He said MRDC was looking at a number of projects such as the Star Mountain Plaza, Pacific Properties Trust and real estate and all the other shareholding that it had, such as PNG Air.
Mano also explained that MRDC’s corporate trustee’s board had exclusive control and MRDC had no powers to spend funds without the board’s approval.
“The funds held in trust by the corporate trustees are not public funds, they belong to the identified project area landowners,” he said.
“The impact of wealth creation can be illustrated when seen through three different stakeholders, the beneficiaries, corporate trustees and the national economy.”
Mano said at the beneficiary level, investments were done through community projects, dividend and royalty payments, scholarships and community donations.
“Areas of focus include education, health, agriculture, law and order and small business enterprise,” he said.
“This investments also contribute national economic growth through employment, government tax income and spin-off business and overall GDP (gross domestic product) of PNG.”