Missing money and paper projects

THE so-called consultants and paper landowners in Port Moresby, with their conniving comrades in Kundiawa, are at it again in their neverending con-game which is costing the province millions of kina.
Chimbu relies on grants from Waigani for its operations yearly and for these fake consultants to steal that money is outright evil and gives the province a bad image.
First, there was the K7 million awarded to a geologist for a feasibility study of the Elimbari limestone mine in Chuave in 2015.
No report has been made and the K7 million is still unaccounted for. As recently as January this year, the same consultant was again given another K5 million to complete the feasibility study.
Now we hear of another job in the so called Karamui hydro project, which also cost the province K7 million in feasibility studies.
The national government is focused on the new K3 billion Ramu 2 hydro dam project, Pauanda hydro dam project in Tambul, the PNG biomass project in the Markham valley of Morobe and the controversial Mayur coal power plant proposal for Morobe. It is not going to fund paper projects dreamed up overnight by corrupt individuals in Port Moresby and Kundiawa.
To build an 1800-megawatts hydro dam in Karamui is not feasible and the national government is not stupid to spend money on a project of that scale and magnitude.
The costs alone for roads, bridges and land compensation claims would run into billions of kina even before the first bucket of concrete is poured on the dam itself.
Let us be realistic and not run around Waigani with yellow envelopes trying to get money from anyone to become paper landowners in someone’s dream project.
The chief ombudsman and police fraud squad should look into these con-artists and lock them up.

Jarra Kawage