Donald queries trust fund

AN MP from Western has called on the prime minister to stop a pending withdrawal of K58 million from the Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA) area trust fund at ANZ Bank.
North Fly’s James Donald, who has just joined the Government from the Opposition, claimed that Western leaders were informed that an individual group called the Ok Tedi Fly River Foundation was in the process of withdrawing K58 million, of which K30 million were to go to a law firm.
Donald said the group claimed to represent the people of the affected communities in the CMCA region of Western but were not legitimate in anyway.
He said the total fund in the ANZ trust account was K258 million while there was also a BSP trust account of K224 million.
“The K58 million from the ANZ CMCA Trust was in the process of being drawn down as I speak,” he said.
“Of that K30 million will be paid to Young and Williams Lawyers, the lawyers that acted on their behalf in collaboration with the courts.
“The ANZ Bank and another prominent lawyer Tiffany Twivey to gain unrestricted access to these funds.”
“Twivey has acted for the group in the past and her recent engagement as the lawyer for the State is a clear conflict of interest.
“The step in which she applied to discontinue the case which was already well advanced is highly questionable.
“The same group initially transferred K15 million on Sept 14, 2018, into Young and William Lawyers Trust account after the court made a ruling to release the fund to this group as trustee of the CMCA trust fund.
“Another K15 million was stopped at BSP after the State intervened. The withdrawals are illegal and in breach of the trust deed.”
Donald said all parties, including the banks, had been advised despite the change of trustees that any withdrawal of funds must comply with the relevant trust deeds.
“These deeds ensured funds go to only projects that are approved in the CMCA region but those involved have abused the trust deed and the public finance (Management) Act,” he claimed.
He said they were appalled by the actions and decision of the court and demanded justice and fairness by the judiciary.
Donald alleged that there was a clear abuse of listing and conflict of interest involved in the case and the decisions.
“I call on the prime minister and the attorney-general to intervene in the national interest to conduct investigation into the conduct of the judiciary and direct the banks to preserve the status quo and not to make any unlawful drawdowns of funds,” he said.
“I further call for an investigation and to refer Tiffany Twivey to the law society.”
Donald also requested for government intervention to direct Young and William Lawyers to refrain from taking any action on the matter until the completion of the investigation.