Maru: Stop compo culture

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Wednesday 29th May 2013

 Trade, Commerce and Industry Minister Richard Maru has called for a stop to the compensation mentality.

“The trend of demanding for compensation before government services are brought into districts must stop,” Maru said in a statement yesterday.

He cited this as a reason for the lack of government services and development in his district.

Maru said people had been demanding for compensation before government services were brought into the area.

“Every service that the government wants to bring into the district, it has to pay,” he said. 

Maru said a good example was when the government had to spend about K4 million paying people as compensation when trying to bring electricity from Wewak to his district.

“I met with the CEO of PNG Power and he told me that he has never seen a scenario like this, where so much money has been squandered as compensation payment by the people in my district. This made me so ashamed of my people,” Maru said.

“I am in the process of  bringing  power into the Saussia area but the feedback that I got from people in that area is that ‘money first and service later’.”

Maru said if the compensation mentality continued, people might as well go back to living in the stone age.  He said a decision had already been made for police to travel to his district to ensure the electrification project for his district was completed without hindrance.

“Nobody will stop the development of Yangoru-Saussia. If the State has to use disciplined forces, it will,” he said. 

“Enough is enough, it is time we leave our past behind and build a new future for our people.”