Court asked to vary orders

By KARO JESSE
THE Madang National Court has being asked to vary the orders it made on June 12 regarding steps to address the dilapidated road conditions in Madang town which has been seen as infringing on human rights.
On June 12, the court made orders in favour of the Madang development authority (DDA) chairman Bryan Kramer upon an application seeking orders to take steps to implement the orders of the court dated Jan 30 and Feb 12.
On Monday, Solicitor-General Tauvasa Tanuvasa presented a notice of motion filed by Kramer before Justice Vergil Narokobi seeking to vary those orders because the initial court orders had been disregarded by the national and provincial Works Department.
“It’s for the Works Department to work with the Madang DDA works team, but because of frustration, this application is filed,” he said.
“The main point which they should understand is that the orders are orders of the court, the clients are not trying to go to contempt yet.
“This is one last chance for them, so that we don’t have to go there.”
The Works Department lawyer objected to the motion by Tanuvasa on the grounds that the court made the orders without consulting some filed affidavits and that the department was not in consultation with the authority before a revised memorandum of agreement (MoA) was pushed through between the authority and department to work together to repair the town’s roads.
According to an affidavit by Kramer, the issue was that the provincial Works manager and staff were refusing to cooperate with the DDA team in compliance of the terms of the existing agreement.
To resolve that issue, Kramer and Works secretary David Wereh signed a revised MoA.
Justice Narokobi will hand down his decision on Friday.
Justice Narokobi said the state agency and provincial authority needed to work together.
Jusitce Narokobi will hand down his decision on Friday.