Landowners assured of IDG an MoA Funds

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has assured landowners that the memorandum of agreement and the infrastructure development grants are safe.

The government will announce this week how the funds are to be paid.

O’Neill said the demand for grants by landowners was a concern because conmen and illegitimate landowners had been making submissions to access the funds.

No social mapping including landowner identification and land demarcation have been done so far.

He said grants were not free handouts and there were processes which should be followed to access the funds.

He said investors had been sincere in giving the landowners the money even before receiving any benefits from the gas projects.

O’Neill said all high-impact infrastructure development grants were done and submitted by the respective local level and provincial governments. They are then submitted to the Expenditure Implementation Committee secretariat to approve the payments.

He said elected leaders should also be blamed for the confusion and the mess created in the distribution of funds.

A standard procedure, as outlined in the Oil and Gas Act, should be made known to the public through the media.

NCD Governor Powes Parkop had asked that legislations be passed by parliament to allow payments to be done in the project areas as submitted earlier by the former minister for petroleum and energy Francis Potape.

Parkop was concerned about the landowners wandering in the city waiting for the government grants.

O’Neill said proper processes had to be followed and landowners should go through their LLG and the provincial governments to submit their proposals to the EIC.

He said the projects would have to go through the tender and supply process.