Treasury releases K40mil

THE Treasury Department has released K40 million to the Department of Petroleum as the first phase of payments to the PNG LNG project landowners.
Department secretary David Manau hopes that the Government will release all the warrants totaling K120 million this year.
The K40 million warrant was handed over by Treasury policy division’s first assistant secretary Donald Hehona and principal analyst David Kiwa.
It is for the landowners of the oil fields in Gobe, Kutubu, Moran and Hides gas.
The Government’s commitment of K235 million was made by the National Executive Council. The balance is K120 million.
The list of projects submission from the landowners has already been approved by the Expenditure Implementation Committee made up the Department of National Planning and Monitoring, Manau, secretaries or nominees of the Departments of Works and Highways; Finance and Treasury and provincial administrators of the impacted provinces, and the operator Santos.
“My department has been working closely with government agencies to ensure that warrants of the amounts are released in a timely manner so that we start disbursing the funds for approved projects based on the EIC decision,” Manau said. He said no more applications would be entertained as the EIC had approved the final list
“We always like to maintain transparency and outcomes that can be justified by a proper report for auditing because these are government funds,” Manau said.