Polye welcomes Micah's Position : It is criminal to dishonour legal-binding agreements

PORT MORESBY: Opposition Leader Don Pomb Polye today reiterated that the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and his government will dishonor their LNG commitments due to the ‘further mortgaging of the landowners’ 4.27 per cent equity share’ to the Sovereign Bond after the repayment of the K3 Billion UBS loan is complete.

Mr Polye said the Parliamentary Opposition had thrown its support behind the Petroleum and Energy Minister Ben Micah for speaking out on Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and his government compromising rule of law in relation to the LNG project.

“I welcome Minister Micah’s position for rightly saying it is criminal for the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and his government not to honor legally-binding agreements in the PNG LNG project,” he said.

Mr Polye said he was a sole voice projecting that the landowners would miss out on their benefits when the government tied their shares to the very bad UBS K3 billion loan to service it in an Escrow account in Singapore.

He added he was happy that now there was a state minister joining his chorus on the state not honoring its commitments in the Landowner Benefit Sharing Agreement.

“Everything I have been saying all alone over the last two years has come to fruition and the government not honoring its commitments in the LNG project is just one of them.

“The landowners will still be waiting for their benefits to be honored by the government in the next ten (10) years as the government has tied their benefits via the detrimental K3 billion UBS loan and it has been further mortgaged through their 4.27 per cent equity share front-end loaded to a Sovereign Bond,” said a well-versed Polye.