By Evah Kuson*

Following on from the preliminary hearing on the Monday 8, August  Simon Ketan has now taken over duties from Davis Stevens as the new Council Assisting for the Commission of Inquiry. Chief Commissioner in his welcoming address thanked Ketan for his willingness to take this role.

Ketan was appointed by the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill to take the post and assured the Chief Commissioner, assisting commissioners, members of the council, technical advisors and members of the public present that he had been briefed on the status of the inquiry and will follow up diligently on the progress.

Following from the progress report on Monday 8^th  the council assisting stated that all relevant Government Departments and Agencies have been contacted and have shown a degree of certainty that they will assist in the collecting and collating of information relevant to the subject with which the Commission of Inquiry has been tasked. Almost all preliminary task of information gathering are incomplete and is expected to be tied up by Friday.

The Department of Lands and Physical Planning will provide to the assisting council the full report of all 74 SABL. Currently only 9 out of the 74 SABL have been obtained. Customary Land services within DLPP and PNGFA have been contacted and have also assured the commission that they are working on putting together all files and information. The assisting commission is expected to cover all primary sources covered in the SABL inquiry Terms of Reference.

The Department of Environment and Conservation and the Department of Agriculture and Livestock are still yet to come good with their response following Monday’s report. Letters have been sent to them and their response is pending. National Research Institute(NRI) and National Land Development Program (NLDP) have also been contacted to have their participation in the inquiry as their extensive research and write up have to some extent prompted the inquiry and should prove to be an asset in the course of the inquiry.

Commissioner Numapo strongly pointed to the council that they have to speed up their information gathering process so that the inquiry can have a full on investigation as it had taken a long time since the Commission of Inquiry have been given a green light to start in July. He gave the council till the 26^th of August for all the 74 SABL files to be in and from then the hearing will be carried out.

Publication of the 74 SABLs will be published in the two dailies, Post Courier and The National as well as the results. The council is racing against time to have all information before the enquiry can have the official hearing. The hearing has been moved to Monday 15^th August at 9.30am for first hearing on the files obtained from DLPP.

* ACT NOW! Special Correspondent covering the Commission hearings