Zurenuoc backs Mori Ltd deal

By ZACHERY PER
THE contract between the government and Mori Resources Ltd is legally binding, Chief Secretary Manasupe Zurenuoc said.
This means that apart from the executing authority, “no one else outside the contracting party has any right to terminate EMR’s contract with the government and EMR will continue and complete the Highlands Highway rehabilitation programme (HHRP)payment exercise”.
He said Mori Resource Ltd had been engaged under a contractual agreement between the national government, through the Works Department, to facilitate the rehabilitation programme.
That was the message Zurenuoc and Works secretary Joel Luma delivered last Monday at Morauta Haus boardroom to a high level delegation from Chimbu that flew into Port Moresby at the invitation of the government following confusion over the Highlands Highway compensation payment exercises.
The delegation was told that EMR was the only firm in Papua New Guinea that used a non-transferable license accessing information from NASA through Pitney Bowes Software PTY LTD in
Sydney, Australia, to collate data regarding structures within the corridors of the Highlands Highway.
All data collected through the system is processed and hot linked to the Works Department’s main server at its head office.
The Chimbu delegation was further lectured on the proficiency and effectiveness of EMR’s sophisticated GIS map info satellite mapping system that can accurately establish the road reserve along the entire corridor of the highway.
Luma said the system was so accurate and transparent that it could deter manipulation of data, eradicate corruption, promote and advocate transparency and quarantined the State against future fraudulent dealings with matters associated with road corridor management anywhere in the country.
Describing the Post Courier’s editorial comment on Jan 3 as “grossly misleading and lacking truth”, Luma said his department was devoted to salvaging millions of kina in public money from dubious and suspicious claims and save millions of kina in maintenance funds.
He called on the two daily newspapers to be responsible in their reporting.
Luma said dishonest public servants colluded with unscrupulous individuals and defrauded the state through excessive compensation payments, exceeding K54 million.
He said of the K54 million, K21 million was paid for structures that were outside of the 40m road corridor, while K24 million could not be audited on site between Mangiro, on the Eastern Highlands-Chimbu border and Waghi on the Western border.
Luma said only K8.4 million was audited and genuinely paid for structures within the legal corridors of the road, while the rest of the money was stolen between Port Moresby and Kundiawa.
He said alleged new miss out claims for the Simbu HHRP on contracts number 9, 10 and 11 rose to a staggering K68 million.
However, with EMR’s application of  its sophisticated system in precisely identifying structures within the 40m road corridor, including identifying those who had already been paid, Luma reiterated that millions of kina would be saved.