Editorial - The National

WHAT has become of the final report of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Special Agricultural Business Leases (SABL)?

That is the K15 million-question on the minds of many citizens, especially the customary landowners who have been affected by the SABL and are eagerly awaiting the final report.

Since Prime Minister Peter O’Neill summonsed the three commissioners earlier this year to explain the incomplete report, nothing has been heard of.

O’Neill’s warning seems to have fallen on deaf ears as CoI chairman John Numapo and commissioners Alois Jerewai and Nicholas Mirou have virtually gone into hiding or hibernation.One of them is believed to have gone overseas soon after the meeting with the PM.

O’Neill’s deadline for the report to be completed within a month of that meeting has expired. He is concerned that K15 million of public monies was spent by CoI without producing a full report of its findings.

O’Neill has not issued any public statements or directives since, but there has been hardly a whisper from the commissioners. The deafening silence prompted a non-governmental organisation (NGO) last week to renew calls for the CoI report to be completed and tabled in Parliament swiftly.

The PNG Eco-Forestry Forum (PNGEFF) wants the Government to give the sleeping commissioners a wake-up nudge, saying that the affected customary landowners and the public are losing their patience over the prolonged delay.

PNGEFF, a forest advocacy group, made the call after the recent publication of a study by James Cook University (Australia) into the PNG oil palm industry.

The report titled “Oil Palm and Deforestation in Papua New Guinea” was carried out by researcher Paul Nelson, who found that large tracts of customary land were given to resource developers under the disguise of oil palm projects for logging. Although the study focused on the lucrative oil palm industry, it somewhat confirmed widely held views that customary land was being squandered through unscrupulous dealings under the SABL.

The PNGEFF also claims that since 2010, customary landowners lost more than 5.2 million hectares of forested areas to foreign logging companies for supposedly agro-forestry projects.

It says this has reduced customary landownership to 86% of the known 97%.

“The fact that customary landowners have lost rights to their land for 99-year leases is of grave concern and the government must do something about it,” PNGEFF communications manager Samson Mark said.

The NGO’s outcry is understandable because the CoI, which was intended to reveal such anomalies and recommend measures to rectify them, has stalled.

The PNGEFF should be commended for renewing this concern and echoing the frustrations of hundreds, if not thousands, of landowners cheated by unscrupulous resource developers and their facilitators. Messrs Numapo, Jirewai and Miviri need more than a wake-up nudge, more like a rude awakening. In fact, O’Neill might need to kick some people in sensitive spots if the full CoI report is ever going to see the light of day.

These prominent lawyers were entrusted to carry out a comprehensive scrutiny of a highly controversial issue and produce their findings, as well as recommendations, to fix up the mess.

They were given ample time and a substantial amount of money to carry  this out but instead produced only a half report and without accounting for the public funds they had spent.

Their performance reflects badly on the PNG legal fraternity that they represent. We hope the three commissioners will do the right thing by presenting their full report with all expenses accounted for – and soon.