By Joey Tau, Freelance Journalist Pacific Media

The Special Agriculture and Business Lease (SABL) is a failed concept, and must be done away with in Papua New Guinea.

That’s according to the Director of the Papua New Guinea National Research Institute, Dr Thomas Webster in Port Moresby recently.

Dr Webster said the recently Commission of Inquiry into SABL revealed that only four out of the rest were credible, while the rest had illegalities.

He said the report has been tabled and it is now up to the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill to take action as “only four were credible...so what do we do with the four, and what do we do with the rest.”

Dr Webster said there problematic issues that stand out from the SABL process especially with “the end of the 99 year lease, the resources are returned to the landowners and generations have gone on,” thus creating questions on the ownership of land and resources after 99 years of lease.

He stressed unlike the SABL, legislations such as the Incorporated Land Group (ILG) and the Land Registration Act allows for customary landowners to register and lease out into business activities with the ILG still having the rightful ownership despite the term of any lease.

Webster added that “another issue about the SABL is that the land payments for rentals are not very clear and land can be registered under the SABL by individuals and not necessarily the clan group,” and certain individuals may take advantage of the process and secure land illegally and engage with businesses as what was found in the inquiry.    

He said the ILG and Land Registration Act are two new laws that has come into effect and that should face out the SABL.

“Each case under the SABL is dependent, and if the intention was to abuse the process and derived the landowners, then we just have to terminate that. But if it was in good will and will be of benefit to the landowners and developers...then let’s look at repackaging it under the new laws of ILG and Land Registration Act,” said Webster.