A Commission of Inquiry into Special Agricultural and Business Leases, or SABLs, found widespread corruption and mismanagement in the government departments tasked with protecting landowners.

The land scandal saw millions of hectares of land leased without the permission of customary owners and the 99-year leases made no provision for rent.

Lands Department Secretary Romily Kila-Pat says the process of cancelling the leases is expected to be completed in the next few days.

Reporter: Jemima Garrett

Speaker: Lands Department Secretary Romily Kila-Pat, Secretary, PNG Lands Department

KILA-PAT: There are about 25 of them that are recommended by the two Commissioners to be revoked. So, basically I do not have the 25 with me right now but all I have is that there were 25 leases that were recommended by the commission of Inquiry to be revoked so effective as of yesterday directions have been issued to the registrar of titles to immediately start the process of revoking those 25 SABLs .

GARRETT: Will those SABLs include the 4 very large SABLs in western Province that the commission of Inquiry recommended be revoked?

KILA-PAT: Well, if those ones in Western Province are among the 25, the obviously, yes.

GARRETT: How will landowners know when the process is complete and the leases actually have been cancelled?

KILA-PAT: We will formally notify them in the next couple of days. Because there are 25 SABLs to be revoked, and the process effecting those revocations will have to be completed properly, formally registered and then we will notify that these 25 SABLs have now reverted back to the original landowners.

GARRETT: So you expect to have the leases revoked by the end of the week?

KILA-PAT: Yes, I am of the view that it should happen by the end of the week because we started yesterday, sorry not yesterday, the day before yesterday, on 23rd and we should be able to complete everything by the end of the week.

GARRETT: So have any actually been revoked now and the letters gone out to landowners?

KILA-PAT: Yes, i will have to confirm that with the Registrar of titles but the instructions are in order and I am expecting everything would be complete by the end of the week.

GARRETT: What will you do about the faulty leases investigated by commissioner Jerewai, who didn't submit his final report?

KILA-PAT: Ok, what has actually happened now is that the National Executive Council (cabinet) has made a decision and it also include the leases that Commissioner Jerewai dealt with, so the remainder of those will be taken up by the task force. There is a special taskforce set up by government to look into those that Commissioner Jerewai actually investigated, and further recommendations will be made to NEC for it to be dealt with like what we are dealing with now.

GARRETT: That taskforce is looking at how to implement all the recommendations of the commission of Inquiry. How long do you think it will take on this specific issue of the revocation of faulty leases investigated by Commissioner Jerewai?

KILA-PAT: Um, again, the establishment of the task force, the details of which i don't have with me right now, i only have the National executive council decision, that I am implementing. I am hoping that in the next day or so, once the taskforce is set up, they will start to investigate into the remainder of those SABLs.

GARRETT: The commission of inquiry identified tha Lands department as one of the biggest areas where corruption had taken place. What are you doing to ensure that officer involved in corruption do face justice?

KILA-PAT: Actually, i think we need to understand the process of SABL before we conclude there is corruption. The department of Lands and Physical Planning plays a facilitation role. The people who drive SABL are basically the landowners. They themselves come forward to the department and say we want this land to be issued an SABL title and we just facilitate the process of issuing an SABL title based on landowner requests.

GARRETT: Nevertheless, the fact that 25 SABLs are being cancelled and the Commission of Inquiry did find a lot of problems in the Lands department. Will any of your officer be disciplined or stood down from their roles and a result of their role in what has happened?

KILA-PAT: that is very important. I have made my commitments. I have started dealing with officers already. As and when those who are found to be doing something wrong, my position is very clear that we don't need to have them in the department. We should let them go. But at this stage, we still have outstanding issues to be dealt with by the taskforce so as soon as they complete everything, we will deal with everything as it unfolds.

GARRETT: The Commission of Inquiry found you, yourself, had issued some Special Agricultural and business leases unlawfully. Should you be in charge of the department as it tries to fix this problem?

KILA-PAT: um, I think what has actually happened now is that I am not going to fix the problems because the tax force has been set up so everything will be dealt with by the taskforce. Basically, there are a number of issues that we need to deal with. I think one that is very, very critical in nature is the legislation. OK. The legislation that deals with the issuance of SABLs needs to be changed but, in this case, we are now repealing that particular law that allowed for SABLs. We now have a new law which is under customary land registration where landowners can now come and register their customary land.

GARRETT: Will you be investigated along with other officers named in the commission of Inquiry report?

KILA-PAT: That is a matter of the taskforce, should the taskforce make those appropriate recommendations, then like I said, the government has now made recommendations for a taskforce to be set up to look into this matter.