MP keen to deal with clan issues

Business

Finance Minister and Tari Pori MP James Marape is working towards engaging with his people to address landowner entitlement issues.
Marape in light of the roadbocks and looting that took place on the fringes of Angore and Hides gas fields on Tuesday, said he would take officers from national departments through the project areas in Hela for an update on their benefits in royalty and equity.
“One-off payments like outstanding commitments will disappear; you only have to see how your cousins from PDL 1 and 7 have used up K20 million and K15 million respectively into thin air just this year,” he said.
“I ask you all to be fair to the government, assist us to get the clan-vetting complete and we will get your entitlements out to you.
“For your other issues, please channel through me and Governor Philip Undialu and our two other colleagues, Minister Petrus Thomas and Vice-Minister Manasseh Makiba to pass on to the Government. I ask you all to remove blockages and we work through the normal channels of dialogue again.”
Marape would be holding a meeting today between concerned leaders of the project areas and has urged them to turn up.
“I encourage you all to meet us to air issues of common concerns and we collectively map a way forward,” he said.
“Sometimes answers may be right in front of us yet our differences of opinion, including politics, continue to become the blockages.
“Hela has many mountains of underdevelopment to climb, hence we all cannot afford the luxury of differences to hinder us because there is no long-term winner in an environment of differences.”