Company funds K4.6mil police facilities in Morobe

THE K4.6 million police facilities funded by New Britain Palm Oil Limited (NBPOL) under its tax credit scheme were opened at Gusap in Markham, Morobe, on Thursday.
The facilities included quarters for married officers (17) and single personnel (12), two training blocks, an administration building and an armoury storage block.
The facilities signify NBPOL’s commitment to the people of PNG through a public-private partnership.
NBPOL chief executive officer Jamie Graham said the project was originally budgeted at K5.2 million.
“NBPOL was lucky to use its own building construction section to build these facilities at a much less cost of K4.6 million,” Graham said.
He said similar projects would be entered in other parts of the country where the company operated.
Graham said the Government should review the tax credit scheme and make it workable so that companies (in the agricultural sector and others) could continue to deliver these sorts of projects on a regular basis.
Police Minister Bryan Kramer said NBPOL’s initiative reflected its commitment towards the people of PNG.
“This shows their (NBPOL) commitment under the tax credit scheme that the facilities were built,” Kramer said.
He thanked NBPOL for putting the money back into services to the people.
“Through the public-private partnership initiative, the NBPOL-funded and build these facilities and I am happy that they (NBPOL) have shown the way forward for other partners and stakeholders in their tax credit scheme.”
Kramer said he would take it up with the National Executive Council (NEC) to allow other major partners and stakeholders (companies and others) to contribute to the nation building through tax credit schemes.
He said tax credit schemes in the past had experienced the misuse of funds which saw companies being reluctant in taking part in these partnerships.