Potape queries impact projects

 Komo-Margarima MP Francis Potape says he has not seen “high-impact” projects in PNG LNG Project areas.

He said that yesterday at the State and landowner issues meeting in Port Moresby relating to the project.

Potape said the 2009 Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement (UBSA) signed in Kokopo had identified high-impact projects for Central, Gulf, Southern Highlands and Hela.

“The Government now has to sit down and touch on what high-impact projects it has funded,” he said.

“We need to find out, we’re going into seven to eight years and when I look back, I see no high-impact projects but the gas has left.” 

Potape said the “nitty-gritty” of infrastructure development grants (IDGs) had never been properly discussed.

“It is now becoming a subject of the court,” he said.

“Hela provincial government is suffering as a result, we’re fighting our landowners, the very people who stood for us.

“In Southern Highlands, they’re facing the same problem, so Government has to make a serious decision on this one, once and for all.

“It is for infrastructure developments, which should be given to provincial governments to decide on projects.