Hela Governor, Philip Undialu, commended the Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) Limited for the policy changes regarding the payment of royalties and dividends for landowners which allowed for transparency in the disbursement of funds.
Undialu said one notable change or shift in the policy is the requirement for landowner clans to create and open their own bank accounts to enable the money to be put in the respective accounts for the people to use.
“This is one big change and I appreciate the MRDC for making this happen for the landowners,” he said.
The other notable change is the period of which a board chairman or director of a landowner company sits in office, which is just four years according to the governor. After that a new person will be appointed to one of those positions.
“You provide good leadership; the people will trust you and you would be elected to the position after four years.”
Undialu said this would ensure no individual would sit for a very long time in the position and would also be fair as the various clans can all have their own representatives elected to the positions.
“The changes MRDC made is to ensure that accountability, leadership and responsibility is upon us to manage the money well,” said the governor.
Governor Undialu was speaking at the payment ceremony held in Benaria in the Komo Magarima district over the weekend for the royalty and dividend payments of a combined total of K3.76million, to segments 2 and 3 landowners of the PNGLNG Pipeline license No. 4(PL4) area.