Govt ministers clash over MoA funds

A Government minister claimed yesterday he has uncovered a major fraud involving K220 million in memorandum of agreement (MoA) funds.
Minister for Labour and Industrial Relations Mark Maipakai claimed the alleged fraud involved the Office of the Minister for National Planning and District Development, chairman’s of Landowners Association in Kikori, a foreign company and a contractor.
Mr Maipakai, who is Member for Kikori, said in a statement that the fraud involved the funding of K220 million for 10 major projects in Kikori district in Gulf province.
He said the projects were approved in a special NEC Decision No.199/2008 dated Sept 18, 2008, and initial funding of K60 million was appropriated in the 2008 Supplementary Budget and an additional K30 million was appropriated in the 2009 development budget.
He said a project submission which identified at least 10 projects was used to gain the release of the funds, but the money was never spent for the purpose, or projects in the submission.
The minister provided copies of documents obtained from the Department of National Planning and Monitoring and the Ministry of National Planning and District Development to support his claim.
Mr Maipakai called on the Minister for National Planning and District Development Paul Tiensten to explain to the people of Kikori, Gulf province and the nation as a whole, what criteria he used to authorise payments of MoA funds.
He questioned why Tiensten ignored directions from the Office of the Prime Minister on these projects.
“The question is why have funds been released without proper project submission, status reports, proper accounting and acquittals?” Mr Maipakai asked.
He said the money was to fund Kikori to Kaiam road (K40 million), Kaiam bridge (K12 million), Kaiam to Baina road (K30 million), Kopi to Wouwobo road (K25 million), Kikori to Omati to Koumaio road (K25 million), Kikori airstrip redevelopment (K35 million), Kikori hospital redevelopment (K15 million), Kikori port development (K10 million), Kikori Ferry and Marine Livelihood project (K8 million), and Kikori housing project (K10 million).
Mr Maipakai alleged that funds paid to landowner associations had not been expended on any of the major development projects in Kikori.
 “This is a daylight robbery that Mr Tiensten must explain to the people of Kikori.”
Mr Tiensten, who was contacted in Brisbane yesterday, denied the allegations of fraud.
He said MoA funds were commitment to landowners for key projects to be delivered as State commitments under the Kutubu, Gobe and other commitments.
Mr Tiensten said Cabinet approval of “Gulf major projects” under Decision 199/2008 follows submission by hour Kikori landowners associations and not the provincial government and Kikori JDP&BPC.
He said the four Kikori landowner associations signed the Kokopo benefits sharing agreement for the LNG project and the Government, in return, made commitment to facilitate the release of MoA funds to them.
Mr Tiensten said, on April 29 last year, with the support of the Treasurer and Finance Minister approved the release of K36.3 million to various Kikori Landowner Associations for nominated projects and initiatives approved by NEC.
He said of this amount K18.7 million was released to three landowner associations (Kikori Oil Pipeline Landowner Association, Mesebe Landowners Association and Omati Landowner Association) and K17.6 million payable to Kikori Gas Pipeline Association was held back pending completion of acquittals.
He said the acquittals had been completed and the K17.6 million was ready to be released to KGPLA.
Mr Tiensten said the State released K20 million to Kikori JDP&BPC with no acquittal to-date, and Mr Maipakai should explain how he spent this money.