Officers to explain exercise in court

National
Source:
The National,Wednesday June 29th, 2016

 By CHARLES MOI 
THE National Court has ordered the Department of Petroleum and Energy secretary and the managers of Hides PDL 1 and PDL 7 to appear in court on July 19 to confirm a recent clan vetting exercise.
Justice Ambeng Kandakai issued the order in Waigani last Tuesday after the secretary and the managers had been conducting clan vetting exercise in Hides PDL 1 and PDL 7 in Hela.
Kandakasi also restrained the Departments of Petroleum and Energy and the Department of Lands and Planning from conducting any clan vetting in Hides PDL1 and PDL 7 until further orders of the court.
Lawyer Robert Mai, who acts for the plaintiffs Robert Mokai for PDL 1 and 7 and others, obtained the orders from the court.
Mokai and others filed their case, which sought the court to hold the Government’s payments of grants that included the infrastructure development grants (IDG) and business development grants (BDG) until social mapping was done.
Late Hela governor Anderson Agiru, Hela acting provincial administrator William Bando, Hela provincial government, Finance secretary Steven Gibson, the State and Bank South Pacific were named as defendants in the matter.
Mai filed the matter in the National Court in 2013. The case has been referred by the court for mediation.