New board members bring Koiari back to life

THE Koiari local level government special purpose authority in Central is back on its feet after five years — with the inauguration of its new board in Port Moresby on Friday.
The new board members held their first meeting and elected Paul Noe as chairman and Kule Iamo as his deputy.
It is the development arm of the local level government and will also oversee developments in parts of the Kokoda local level government areas in Northern and the Rigo LLG areas.
The inauguration ceremony was conducted by Magistrate Mekeo Gauli and witnessed by officers from the Department of Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs and Central provincial government.
Eight of the 19 board members who were absent will be sworn in later.
Noe said the authority was the first in the country to implement resource benefit agreements between the Government, provincial government and the Koiari Development Authority which has been replaced by the current authority.
Fighting between groups in the area led to the suspension of the authority’s operation in 2014.
“The revival of the authority is timely and I am asking all our Koiari people to stand together to fight for and claim back what is legally and rightfully entitled to us — resources such as land, water and power we supply for the development of Port Moresby and Papua New Guinea,” Noe said.
He said the new board members would work to voice the interest of the Koiari people and to fight for what was rightfully theirs as landowners.