Juha leader: Govt must show who gets payments

By JEFFREY ELAPA
THE state must tell the Departments of Commerce and Industry, National Planning, Petroleum and Energy and   Finance to practise transparency in dealing with landowner funds.
Paramount chief and chairman of the Tuguba Himuya clan Lulu Aliawi said the government should make payments transparently so that the landowners could know and identify if the legitimate landowners were receiving the funds.
He said the government failed to identify legitimate landowners and many paper landowners had benefited while the legitimate landowners missed out for grants such as the business development grants.
Aliawi, who owns 38% of the Juha PDL 9 area, said the government and the paper landowners had used their land as a football to make money while they (landowners) continued to wait.
He said he applied for business development grants based on the 38% ownership and applied for a K9.9 million but had not received it.
However he said that if the state was going to make the payments them, as the legitimate landowner, he needed to see the list of payments and to whom the payments were to be made.
He said it would be best to allow landowners to see which people would be paid and make all payments in public.
“Everyone including (ministers) William Duma, Don Polye and Sam Basil have their God given lands so people should not be play around with my land which has been given to me by God.
“Before any payment is made, the list should be published for the public.
“That is the right way and that is transparent.
“That would allow me, as the landowner, to see who gets what,” Aliawi said.
He said the Juha land was in the Southern Highlands and not in  Western province.