MRA mulls approach to communities

MINERAL Resources Authority (MRA) acting managing director Jerry Garry says the State has discussed with at least two project developers about the idea of transferring the responsibility of community social obligations to them.
Garry said this notion was considered after seeing that the State had not been fulfilling its obligation to the people.
“When I first took office in MRA, I found that about K4.5 billion worth of public investment programmes across communities had not been delivered due to a lack of funds,” he said.
“When you look at obligations, the Government is putting up infrastructure development grants (IDG) for impact communities, business development grant (BDG), even using the tax credit scheme.”
Garry said the idea had been considered of the State being unburdened and allow projects to carry a social license fee that landowners would receive.