New Ireland Legislative Assembly Chairperson assisting Governor in Finance Misbil Nelson on Thursday 06th/10/22 issued a public call for openness and transparency on the part of the two Open Members for New Ireland with respect to the use of millions of kina worth of mining royalty funds that have gone to the District Development Authorities since 2021.
Nelson said that “New Ireland is one of the few resource-rich provinces blessed with two Gold mines. The Lihir Gold mine, in particular, pays out large sums of royalties every month, as well as contributing to the National purse at the same time. The people of New Ireland deserve to know how their mining royalties are being spent. “
Nelson noted that since a change in the distribution of Royalty payments, 80 percent of the royalties from the gold mines go directly to the districts and only 20 percent stays with the Provincial Government.
She said that “In the past all the royalties were parked with the Provincial Government, and all expenditure was tied to impact projects for the districts and the People of New Ireland. Every toea of royalty expenditure was identified in the Provincial Annual Budget, as approved by the Provincial Executive Council. However, since the royalties have been paid directly to the Districts, there has been no accounting for how those funds have been spent. The two DDAs have never made their budgets public, and there is no record of expenditure by the two Districts.”
Nelson revealed, “From February 2021 to August 2022, a total of over K70 million in royalty payments have been paid to the respective districts and NIPG. Broken down, the two districts have received a total of more than K28 million each, while the Provincial Government has received only K14 million. Our Provincial Budget identifies where every toea of the K14 million the Provincial Government has received has been spent. However, we have no record at all of where the K56 million received by the two districts has gone. No record at all.”
Nelson continued, saying that the lack of accountability on the part of the two Districts has meant that important programmes implemented in the last fifteen years by the provincial Government – including Roof Over Heads, Old Age and Disabled Pensions, Ward Level Projects and many others – now have no funds for implementation.
“These are programmes that benefit the people in the two Districts for which the Open Members are representatives. But now that the money is under the control of the Open Members, their People are no longer benefitting from that money. Where has the money gone? It has not gone to the People. It has not gone to making the lives of the people better. New Irelanders have the right to ask what the two Open MPs, who also happen to be Ministers of State, are spending the royalty monies on?” said Nelson.
Nelson stressed that “To date the New Ireland Government has not received any district plans or expenditure reports from the two open MPs to determine whether the royalty monies are being spent on the intended requirements of the Lihir MOU, which was signed by Sir Julius Chan when he was Prime Minister in 1994.”
Nelson said “the New Ireland Government has nothing to hide. If you want to know what we have spent Lihir Royalties on just refer back to all the budgets we have passed. As soon as the royalties hit our accounts, they always go directly to funding impact projects and our Government policies as captured in our Malagan Declaration, Malagan Declaration Forward and New Ireland Declaration. Those Budgets are made public every year.”
“But, where are the Budgets of the Districts? Where are the records of expenditure of over K56 million? That money has just disappeared, and it has done nothing to help our People.”
Nelson also urged the two Open MPs to contribute to the construction of the West Coast Highway project. “Our people on the West Coast also voted for the two open MPs. The cry from our West coast people is for them to have a proper sealed highway, just like the Boluminski Highway or even better. They are hardworking people and have suffered enough for many years, we must fast track the West Coast Highway. The two open MPs must live up to their mandated duties of serving the people. They were not elected to build their own empires or serve only a select few.”
Nelson concluded, saying “We are not here to play around. Our Government means business and we intend to give the best to our people. We must work together for the benefit of all New Irelanders. The first step is for two Open Members to come clean. They need to tell us what they have done with all the money they have received. And they need to recognize that they have a duty to the People of New Ireland, and that we should all work together to ensure that the resources available to us are used not for the benefit of a few, but for the benefit of all the People of New Ireland.”