Court suspends K15mil account

A COURT has issued orders to stop any transaction on the K15 million belonging to the Hides Petroleum Development Licence 7 (PDL 7) landowners that was deposited into Bank South Pacific.
The Waigani National Court, presided by Justice Collin Makail granted the temporary interim injunction orders after he was satisfied that there was a serious issue regarding the K15 million.
He ordered that the Hides PDL 7 Local Level Government Special Purpose Authority and its chairman, Andy Hamaga, are restrained to use the money that was deposited into their account.
The court also ordered to restrain Bank South Pacific to allow any transactions by the chairman and its members of the authority.
They were the three defendants who were ordered to not interfere with the K15 million matter pending before the court.
The court was told that the money was deposited into the account of a body which was not agreed upon by the landowners of PDL 7 pursuant to the agreement reached by the Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement (UBSA) between the landowners and the State.
The court heard that the right authority in which the money was supposed to be deposited into was the Hides Special Purpose Authority (HPSA) and that was the approved authority agreed by the landowners.
The court heard that the K15 million was part of the K35 million paid by the State to the landowners of PDL 1 and PDL 7 landowners of the liquefied natural gas project in Hela.
The court was told that K20 million belonged to the landowners of PDL 1 and their money was deposited into HPSA pursuant to the agreement reached by them, however, the K15 million for PDL 7 landowners was deposited into the wrong account.
Justice Makail adjourned the matter to Jan 18, 2018, and ordered the plaintiffs to serve the relevant documents before the next hearing.