Nearly 70% of Papua New Guinea’s round log exports between 2019 and 2021 were concentrated in the hands of just ten groups of companies, all with strong links to Malaysia, according to new research by Act Now! and Jubilee Australia Research Centre.
In 1989, after chairing a two-year Commission of Inquiry, Justice Barnett described forest management in PNG as being in a state of chaos. He declared that foreign-owned logging companies were being allowed to operate as they pleased as a result of bribery and the corruption of State officials and politicians.
ACT NOW! and Jubilee Australia
Thursday 15 September 2022
Eddie Tanago, Campaign Manager
While we celebrate 47 years of political Independence, we must acknowledge the fact that as a Nation we have failed to fulfil our development aspirations and we should reflect on the reasons why this is so.
Why have our social and economic development outcomes fallen so short of what we dreamed was possible, despite the fact that our Nation is so richly blessed in natural resources?
The answer is that our failures have mainly been caused by successive governments choosing to follow the wrong development model.
There are a lot of important issues for the new Forest Minister, Salio Waipo, to address, especially rampant illegal and unsustainable logging.
Community advocacy organisation ACT NOW! says there are a lot of important issues for the new Forest Minister, Salio Waipo, to address, especially rampant illegal and unsustainable logging.
Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago says that it is shameful that more than 30 years after the Forest Act 1991 introduced a raft of reforms aimed at stopping the unsustainable logging and corruption exposed by the Barnett Commission of Inquiry, the situation today is no better.
Payroll taxes and Goods and Services Tax (GST) make up a large proportion of the government revenue which is used to fund its Service Improvement Programs.
K10 million each year is paid to every District across the country and another K5 million per District goes to Provincial governments. Then there is a further K500,000 for every Local Level government.
Billions of Kina are distributed every year through the Service Improvement Program (SIP) and every Tax Payer in PNG has the right to know how their money is being spent.
Effective action against corruption is essential for economic growth and it should be the number one priority for the new Marape government.