Ministers’ discretionary powers over resources to be cut

PRIME Minister James Marape, pictured says they will review all resource laws this month to disallow discretionary decisions by ministers.
He said they would be reviewing laws related to forestry, mining, fisheries and oil and gas to put a stop to decisions made by ministers on their own.
“Some of the laws we have in place also allow for the discretion of the ministers, cabinet and even the prime minister and that is something that I like to terminate,” Marape said.
“No ministers should have discretion.
“No primes minister or cabinet should have the discretion to make in the provision of law to harness benefits from the development of our resources.
“For instance, the provision of the oil and gas acts that allows the petroleum minister’s intervention call.
“So those areas we are trying to refine so that going into the future, our stakeholders and our investors win and our country also wins.”
Marape said on Monday that many of these fundamental resource laws would be looked in the best interest to ensure that we don’t harm our investors but at the same time we win greater sustainability for PNG’s resources.
“I will be consulting with various investors (this month) to inform them of some of the decisions of the Government so that they will feel no intimidation or harm.
Meanwhile, Marape yesterday praised Petroleum Minister Kerenga Kua who led a team to meet partners in the Papua LNG project seeking to renegotiate a gas deal signed in April.
“It was not easy, especially at the back of what was already a signed, legal document that defines the parameters and the fiscal terms of the project,” Marape said.
He said on the back of the Papua LNG gas deal that was signed by the previous government: “PNG is no longer a green field in the area of oil and gas.
“We are a brown field and have been producing gas since 1990. We are now entering into our second LNG agreement and so for future LNG developments and future oil and gas developments, we are now shifting towards putting into law what should be the DMO (domestic market obligations), so there should not be any question marks.
“Fiscal take is defined in law…ministers and governments will not have discretions.
“Not only oil and gas but all our revenue laws put together.”