Landowners looking forward to payments

Landowners of Hides PDL 7 in Hela have begun their countdown to the deadline for payment of their outstanding bills total of K6.5 million.
Umbrella Hides PDL 7 Association Inc and team leader of the 10,000-plus landowners, Huriba Andago, said in a statement yesterday that legal and other bills were incurred as a result of breach of the agreement signed in 2017 between landowners and State agencies, including Department of Petroleum and Energy (DPE) and Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC).
“The above stakeholders breached the agreement signed at Hides gas conditioning plant site when presenting the initial payment to landowners,” Andago said.
“The presentation was witnessed by high-level Government and ExxonMobil representatives, including Hela Governor Philip Undialu, Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta, Petroleum and Energy Minister Fabian Pok and ExxonMobil managing director Andrew Barry.
“We went to court after having concrete evidence of high level of fraud, conspiracy and official corruption involved in the K15 million project security funds payment in 2017.
“The bills were incurred while trying to protect the K15m for the 10,000-plus landowners of Hides PDL 7.
“We were successful in obtaining court order OS 1011/2017 restricting any transactions on the account.
“However, DPE, MRDC and Bank South Pacific (BSP) failed to support the plaintiffs as per the agreement at Hides and the court matter was dismissed on June 29, merely on technical grounds.
“Hence, the bills were incurred in attending to court cases over eight months.
“DPE acting secretary Kepsy Puiye authorised BSP to release the funds to a fake authority, despite numerous requests to restrict payment and come to roundtable meetings to discuss the fair and equitable distribution of funds.
“We are now calling on DPE to release the payments and travel arrangements as agreed to in our meeting with Puiye and his senior management team on Dec 19 at MRDC Haus in Port Moresby.”
Andago said the rampage by disgruntled Hides landowners at DPE head office on Nov 21 was a result of continuous postponement and delays by the department in settling their bills.
They added that service providers had been given letters by the Umbrella Hides PDL7 Association to pick up their bills payments on Jan 14 as per the meeting with DPE on Dec 19.
“The Jan 14 deadline will be the presentation of payments and tickets for landowners to return to Hides,” Andago said.
“This will be the time to end our battle with DPE, MRDC and the State.
“We are ready to travel back to Hides after settling outstanding issues in Port Moresby, and will proceed with commencement of clan vetting, thereafter.”