PORT MORESBY (Papua New Guinea Post-Courier/PINA) — Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Mekere Morauta on Wednesday said that the controversial Kiunga-Aiambak timber project “should never have occurred.”
He made the admission when outlining his government’s crackdown on the forestry industry.
The project in the Western Province was highlighted this week by a Greenpeace raid on a ship attempting to export logs from the venture.
Morauta said: “The 2001 independent review, whose findings the government accepted, specified that the project failed to comply with legal requirements for such a project and that the timber authority and its extensions should never have been granted.”
He also said the top post at the Forest Authority would be filled “on merit” and with the help of an independent recruitment agency.
The Kiunga-Aiambak project is also in the courts, Morauta said.
He said the Forest Authority had been restrained from taking action against the project by a court injunction granted in late 1999.
“The matter is currently awaiting a full court hearing, which is scheduled to be heard at the end of this week,” he said.
He said the acting attorney general had been instructed to join the case in support of the authority. Authorities are to investigate claims of violence and other human rights abuses against resource owners by people reportedly acting on behalf of other interest groups.
He said the Timber Authority would be one of the first operations to be examined under an independent review.
Further extensions to the Kiunga-Aiambak timber authority would not be permitted or valid, Morauta said.
In the 2001 budget, amendments were made to legislation to get rid of ministerial and NEC discretion over forestry tariff rates, leaving it to Parliament.
