Modus operandi in stealing state land

 ON July 13, The National reported a major fraud case involving senior officers of the Department of Lands. 

The article was entitled “Na­tional Court orders state to pay firm K4 million for fraud land deal”. 

On July 27, The National reported another major fraudulent land deal worth millions of kina. 

In the article “Lands deal ends in arrest”, the acting secretary for the Department of Lands Romily Kila-Pat was charged with stealing and conspiracy to defraud. 

If the charges are proven in court that the acting secretary had indeed used his position to extort and steal land to sell, how deep is the rot in that department? 

How many more PNG citizens and national companies will see their state land lease grants defrauded before the national government set up a commission of inquiry?

After reading through these fraud cases, I believe I have figured out one of the methods used by unscrupulous officers of Department of Lands to defraud state land grants. 

The method works something like this:

After the public tendering and Lands Board hearing process, the board awards the land to the successful applicant. 

The successful applicant goes through the process of satisfying the requirements for the land title.

Somewhere along this process, the successful applicant will be informed by an officer of the Department of Lands that the do­cuments or file on the parcel of land has gone “missing”. 

The applicant will be told that the process cannot be completed until the documents or file is reco­vered. 

The applicant is promised that he or she will be notified when the “missing” documents or file is re­covered. 

As the years pass, the applicant will either forget or simply give up waiting and move on. 

And that is exactly what the officer expects the applicant to do. 

Then the documents or file will be “found”. 

The officer now has available a parcel of land that can be awarded (sold) to another person or company using convenient provisions available to officers of the Department of Lands.

If you are a successful applicant who has been told to wait for the “missing” documents or file, it is possible someone else has already purchased the title.

There is another interesting angle to this saga. 

More than one title to a parcel of land can be made and sold to diffe­rent clients. 

I have been told there is a parcel of prime land in Lae which is being fought over by two businessmen.

The case is now before the National Court. 

The thing is each of them has an official title issued by the Department of Lands. 

How is this possible? 

Well, it seems everything is possible within the Department of Lands.

In the land of the unpredictable

New Ireland