Radio New Zealand | 6 February 2014
PNG Govt yet to act on SABL inquiry recommendations
An anti-corruption NGO has accused the Papua New Guinea government of dragging the chain on recommendations from an inquiry into the controversial Special Agricultural Business Leases.
In September the prime minister Peter O'Neill tabled a report in parliament from a commission of inquiry which found more than 90 percent of those leases were ilegally obtained from customary landowners.
Under the lease system, over 5 million hectares of land, or more than 10% of PNG's total land mass, is estimated to have been affected by the illegal leases.
Effrey Dademo of the NGO Act Now says the government appears to be ignoring the inquiry's clear recommendations that the leases be cancelled.
"If the government is serious about tackling corruption... I mean, there are some leases that have names of politicians attached to them - too bad. At the end of the day, if it's been found to be fraudulently issued, then it needs to be cancelled, that's the whole issue, that's the bottom line," says Effrey Dademo.
"If the government is serious about tackling corruption... I mean, there are some leases that have names of politicians attached to them - too bad. At the end of the day, if it's been found to be fraudulently issued, then it needs to be cancelled, that's the whole issue, that's the bottom line," says Effrey Dademo of the PNG NGO Act Now.
PNG Govt yet to act on SABL inquiry recommendations
An anti-corruption NGO has accused the Papua New Guinea government of dragging the chain on recommendations from an inquiry into the controversial Special Agricultural Business Leases.
In September the prime minister Peter O'Neill tabled a report in parliament from a commission of inquiry which found more than 90 percent of those leases were ilegally obtained from customary landowners.
Under the lease system, over 5 million hectares of land, or more than 10% of PNG's total land mass, is estimated to have been affected by the illegal leases.
Effrey Dademo of the NGO Act Now says the government appears to be ignoring the inquiry's clear recommendations that the leases be cancelled.
"If the government is serious about tackling corruption... I mean, there are some leases that have names of politicians attached to them - too bad. At the end of the day, if it's been found to be fraudulently issued, then it needs to be cancelled, that's the whole issue, that's the bottom line," says Effrey Dademo.
