PNG's land scandal inquiry names an Australian-led company

Updated

A Commission of Inquiry in Papua New Guinea has recommended an Australian-led company involved in obtaining leases over more than two million hectares of traditional land be investigated for criminal misconduct and conspiracy.

In 2011 a public outcry over the rorting, mainly by logging companies, of a leasing scheme intended for small agriculture projects, prompted the PNG Government to set up the Commission of Inquiry.

Three commissioners were set the task of investigating how 11 per cent of PNG's land mass came to be leased, mostly for 99 years, often without permission of landowners.

The largest of the land grabs involved four leases for more than two million hectares belonging to tens of thousands of people in PNG's Western Province.

It was orchestrated by a small PNG-registered, Queensland-led company called Independent Timbers and Stevedoring Limited (IT&S).

The Commission report, which has just become public, found IT&S 'manipulated' the supposedly independent lease approval process to obtain control over four Special Agricultural and Business Leases, or SABLs.

Look nobody told me, my people about the lease... we had no idea about this SABL process. Now our land is with the company. Waeya Bugaebo, Western Province landowner

Commissioner Nicholas Mirou found documents prepared by the company were 'deceptive and clearly fraudulent' and recommended that further investigation be undertaken to establish if 'international racketeering over land acquisition has been committed'.

PNG government agencies responsible for monitoring and approving the project were found to be guilty of 'gross negligence'.

Commissioner Mirou spent two weeks in Western Province listening to testimony from landowners and found the majority did not give consent to the leases.

"One of the fundamental requirements under the Lands Act itself is consent... if you don't have consent of the landowners, obviously, it is the prerequisite for an SABL lease to be granted," he said.

He was particularly touched by a pastor's wife, Waeya Bugaebo, who crossed mountains and swamps on foot to give her testimony.

"She walked, actually walked eight days to come to Kiunga... she gave her evidence, and she cried, and said 'Look nobody told me, my people about the lease... we had no idea about this SABL process. Now our land is with the company,'" Commissioner Mirou recounted.

The Commission of Inquiry has recommended the four leases be revoked.

PNG's biggest logging project

The IT&S project began life as a plan to build a road 600 kilometres from the Western Province town of Kiunga to the PNG capital, Port Moresby, and to pay for it by harvesting logs along a 40-metre road corridor.

Landowners were keen for the opportunities road access would bring and happy to lease a narrow passage through the forest.

But the commission found that by the time all the paperwork was finished, Lands Department officials and executives of landowner companies had unwittingly signed approval for the leasing of more than two million hectares.

The four leases obtained for the IT&S project were also found to have failed to provide reasonable access for hunting, fishing, gardening and other necessities of life.

Commissioner Mirou says many communities did not discover their land had been leased, until he took his hearings to Kiunga.

If it goes ahead the IT&S project, by the company's own admission, will be the biggest logging project PNG has ever seen.

The ABC sought IT&S's response to the Commission of Inquiry's findings.

IT&S distinguishes itself from many of the other developers listed in the Commission of Inquiry by the simple fact that operations have not commenced. Neville Harsley, CEO of Independent Timbers & Stevedoring LTD

"The company has requested all of the supporting documents, transcripts and other related exhibits from Commission of Inquiry sources as they have not been made readily available," a statement issued by Neville Harsley, chief executive officer of IT&S, said.

"IT&S distinguishes itself from many of the other developers listed in the Commission of Inquiry by the simple fact that operations have not commenced," the statement added.

For many landowners the fact that their forest is still intact has given comfort.

The statement suggests the company is keen to continue with the project.

"IT&S has been working methodically in collaboration with landowners for over the last 10 years" it said.

"IT&S remains committed to the customary landowners through the course of the project which will provide the local communities with access to medical resources, water treatment plants at villages, schools, community centres, infrastructure, job opportunities and significant landowner benefits and royalties" said the statement.

Australian and PNG government role

The commission has recommended 66 flawed leases be revoked across Papua New Guinea.

Last year when Prime Minister Peter O'Neill presented the Commission's final report to parliament, he said the Inquiry revealed a shocking trend of corruption and mismanagement.

Mr O'Neill said drastic action was needed.

NGOS in PNG are concerned about the delay and have called for immediate revocation of the 66 leases.

Last week Mr O'Neill told an FM100 talk-back program he had appointed a ministerial committee and SABLs would be cancelled. As yet there has been no action.

Anti-corruption watch-dog, Transparency International (TI), wants Australian, as well as PNG authorities, to investigate IT&S.

"Our reaction from the start with that case was that it was appalling, that it was almost a third of the land area of the province," Lawrence Stephens, chairman of the TI's PNG Chapter, said.

Mirou SABL Final Report "> External Link: Commissioner Mirou SABL Final Report ">

Topics: land-management, land-rights, government-and-politics, papua-new-guinea, pacific, australia

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