Minister: Project benefits belonging to people still outstanding

By SHIRLEY MAULUDU
PETROLEUM and Energy Minister Kerenga Kua says some benefits that rightly belong to the impact landowners of petroleum projects in the country are still outstanding.
Kua told a recent media conference that some benefits were carried forward from oil projects.
“We started with oil projects before,” he said.
“At the back of this, we had gas projects that came on board which involved the same area and same people.
“So the unsettled issues from the oil projects, rolled over into the gas project and this has created more complexity.
“Though there have been a lot of going back to landowners as benefits, some of the benefits got lost along the way.
“We will not hide this, that’s the truth.
“At the same time, some of the benefits that Government had committed to deliver under the umbrella benefit sharing agreement (UBSA) which is stipulated in the Kokopo UBSA, some of those are still outstanding.” Kua said he had written letters to Treasury Minister Ian Ling-Stuckey, Prime Minister James Marape and National Planning and Monitoring Minister Sam Basil, identifying the outstanding commitments.
“Not that they pay immediately but so that they are made aware that some of the outstanding commitments were itemised and we arrived at a total – we will not bury all these things,” he said. “As they work on the budgets, hopefully these are factored into those budgets so we can gradually retire those commitments.
“These are their (people) rights and what the people are entitled to.
“Whatever that was agreed upon publicly, signed off on the agreements and is still outstanding, those commitments need to be fulfilled.”