Mirisim defends signing project’s timber permit

DEFENCE Minister Solan Mirisim says he acted within the law in signing a timber permit for a project in West Sepik when he was Forest minister last year.
Mirisim was responding to an article on social media regarding the timber permit for timber rights purchase blocks 3, 4 and 5 in Vanimo, West Sepik.
In the article, the PNG Forest Authority claimed that the minister violated a court order when signing the permit for the project.
The article said the authority wrote a letter to the developer claiming that the permit was void.
The article implied that due process was not followed and the minister acted unlawfully.
But Mirisim refuted these claims in the article.
He said the law set out the approval process clearly and he believed that process was followed in the granting the permit.
“The permit application went through the approval process before it got to me. The managing director’s office signed off on the vetting process and it was brought to me for my signature,” he said.