Paita to report on public money regularisation act

PRIME Minister James Marape says Finance Minister Rainbo Paita will report to Parliament an update on the Public Money Management Regularisation Act (PMMRA) and its implementation through the “sweep exercise”.
Marape was responding to questions by Gulf Governor Chris Haiveta about royalty money for landowners which he claimed was being taken by the Government through the PMMRA sweep exercise.
He said by law the royalty money was for the landowners and should be paid to them.
Marape however explained that in the sweep exercise by PMMRA, there may have been a possibility that timber royalties may have been taken.
“The mining royalties for oil and gas were there for them to benefit from but it may be the timber royalties.
“For timber, there might be a possibility that under the sweep exercise of the PMMRA when it came into effect it could have been swept into Waigani public accounts.
“I will ask Minister Paita to confirm this with Forestry and report back to parliament as to what has happened in this case.
“If they had mistakenly taken these funds, then the rightful thing to do is to restore this money to our landowners.
“As for the past and present governments, the landowners’ royalties cannot be touched.”
In response to a question on paying royalties directly to the landowners, Marape said this was consistent with some of the reforms that the Government was undertaking.
“I assure the governor and through this question to our landowners.
“We are looking at the reform where different layers of government do not stand in the way of the landowners receiving their entitlements that were meant for royalties,” Marape said.