PNG ranks most corrupted in the world – making the indigenous people poorest

By MICHAEL KUMAKA | VIEWPOINT

The Papua New Guinea (PNG) Government has no legal control of the customarily land, forest and carbon in PNG; and thus it tried to influence the customary landowners in a ‘bully manner” with great interest in the benefits which are duly for the indigenous people.

In a sovereign nation one has to pay tax to the government for conducting commercial activities. Therefore, it would be better for the government to collect its 10% tax from the business activities the customary landowners (CLOs) engaged and not in some fraudulent manner, tapping into the coffers of the poor CLOs – what rightly belongs to them.

There have been some suspicious trustees and funds created by the Government for the people but most of them are corrupted and the money does not get right down to the people.

Some of which were created for the REDD+ funds are; Mama Graun Conservation Fund, PNG National Forest Fund (GreenPeace 2010) and the PES Fund (EcoForestry Forum 2010).

No one knows if any of these Government-created funds is functioning and/or operating to benefit the indigenous people on REDD+ options.

Timber Royalties for the indigenous people are managed and disbursed by the PNG Forestry Authority (PNGFA) and this is the only publicly known payments CLOs in the forestry sector receive to date.

Meanwhile, in a recent report presented by Transparency International PNG reveals PNG is one of the most corrupted nations in the world.

The 2018 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) published PNG ranking 138 out of 180, making it one of the most corrupted countries in the region and in the world.

Most of the corruption activities or rather say corruption cases dealing with billions of dollars is to do with illegal land grabbing and resources deprivation from CLOs.

One of the world’s biggest illegal land grabs that adds PNG to the global corruption scale is the Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABL).

Its more than five years after the government promised to cancel the SABL (special agriculture and business) leases and return the land to its customary owners, the people of Papua New Guinea are still waiting to hear which, if any, leases have been cancelled.

Few months ago, the United Nations wrote to the government for a third-time, accusing ministers of racial discrimination against their own people for not implementing the recommendations of the 2013 Commission of Inquiry and cancelling the leases.

Meanwhile, through a recent media statement, a CLO from the PNG LNG project area Bobby Joseph Pari is calling on the Government to publish the long-awaited list of clan vetting for the impacted clans to receive their benefits.

He said before registering for clan vetting, the PNG Government through the Department of Lands must publish their clan and/or tribes names for a month or two for all CLOs to debate their validity.

“Clan vetting must be published before the department gazettes it and not after the department gazettes it,” he cautioned of the forthcoming irregularities.

“If we do not do this, we will be faced with an issue similar to the Bougainville issue,” he added.

The CLOs themselves must be aware of what is happening so that they are given the opportunity to validate the clans before registration. The Government must give time for the CLOS to validate themselves and correct any mistakes, errors and omissions in handling. – Via Garamut News.