PNG landowners conned by companies cutting down forests: PNG PM Peter O'Neill

Liam Fox | ABC News

Papua New Guinea's prime minister Peter O'Neill says a controversial type of land lease has allowed foreign companies to con traditional landowners and chop down forests.

Special Agricultural Business Leases (SABLs) were supposed to allow traditional land to be converted into leasehold land for agricultural developments.

They cover more than 5 million hectares - about 11 per cent of PNG.

Source: Liam Fox on Australian Network News 

Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister says reports into controversial land leases reveal a shocking trend of corruption and mismanagement.

Two years ago a Commission of Inquiry was formed to investigate Special Agricultural Business Leases (SABLs)

The Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has tabled the reports from two of the three Commissioners in Parliament.

He told Parliament that of the 42 SABLs examined, only four had the consent of local landowners and had viable agricultural projects.

By ADRIAN MATHIAS, The National

ALOIS Jerewai, one of the commissioners in the inquiry into the Special Agricultural and Business Leases, says he is willing to repay at least K970,000 paid to him as wages to produce a report.

“I have assets to give back to the State because I (have) got nothing to lose,” Jerewai told journalists in Port Moresby yesterday.

Source: Isaac Nicholas (Post Courier)

THE National Executive Council has referred the three commissioners who chaired the Special Agriculture Business Leases Commission of Inquiry to the PNG Law Society for disciplinary action.

They have also been referred to the Royal PNG Constabulary for an investigation into the use of more than K15 million earmarked for the inquiry.

Source: Radio New Zealand

Calls continue to mount for an overhaul of the way land is managed in Papua New Guinea amid claims that foreign companies have been unlawfully granted rights to 12% of the country’s land mass.

The Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has indicated he is about to table the long-awaited report by a Commission of Inquiry into Special Agricultural Business Leases.

Source: Radio New Zealand

Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Lands and Physical Planning Benny Allen says the government is looking at reducing the size of the Special Agricultural Business Leases.

The Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has signalled he is about to table in parliament the long-awaited report by the Commission of Inquiry into the SABL system.

Mr Allen says the leases - some of which covered up to a million hectares - were problematic because their size meant various issues where multiple landowner groups were involved.

Source: Radio New Zealand

Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Lands and Physical Planning Benny Allen says his ministry is investigating a number of questionable transactions within the Lands Department.

The Ministry has invited complaints about land dealings throughout PNG and is commissioning a team to investigate all land deals alleged to have been fraudulent.

Mr Allen says many complaints are filing in and some relate to corrupt dealings within the department.

Source: The National

THE report of the special agriculture and business lease (SABL) will be tabled today, although it is not to the expectation of the cabinet, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill told Parliament yesterday.

O’Neill said that he only received two of the expected three reports from the commissioners.

He said despite that the cabinet had decided to table the final report as the country had been expecting it since last year.

Source: Radio New Zealand

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has indicated he is about to table the long-awaited report by the Commission of Inquiry into the Special Agricultural Business Leases.

The government ordered the Inquiry in 2011 to investigate the SABL system which civil society groups claim has been used for a huge ’land grab’ that has seen over 5 million hectares of land swallowed up in 99 year leases, often for unsustainable logging projects.

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In line with an electoral platform that pledged to deliver more local level services and control over spending, the national government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has introduced a budget for 2013 that transfers nearly PGK1.5bn ($623m) to provincial, district and local authorities.