The smelly beast that’s Paga Hill Development Corporation

Ok so maybe if you own a prime piece of property in Port Moresby, you’re freak’n rich. But the latest information publicly available on Paga Hill Development corporation has revealed that its assets were valued at K100 and liabilities also at K100 in 2006, according to its annual returns.

The shareholders of the company are listed as:

Barry James Cheshire, an Australian with a registered address in Queensland

George Hallit, an Australian with a registered address in Port Moresby

Gregory Mark Harrison-Ward, an Australian with a registered address in Port Moresby

Tracy Veronica Kluck, an Australian with a registered address in Queensland

Stanley Liria Kuli, a Papua New Guinean with a registered address in Port Moresby

John Dale Martin, an Australian with a registered address in Queensland

Kwadi Inn Ltd, a Port Moresby based company

The Company Directors are listed as follows; Tau Asigau Fridriksson, a Papua New Guinean and Stanley Liria.

The company secretary is Gudmundur Fridriksson an Icelander .

A Google search of Stanley Liria and Gudmundur Fridriksson FOUND that both have been linked to missing K18 million for Komo-Magarima electorate. 

Mr Fridriksson himself is a colour blind Icelander implicated in the failed publication of Destination PNG 25th Independence Anniversary Book in the mid 90s. The Fridrikssons, who, despite PNG's hard times, pocketed a cool $2.5 million from the PNG Government for the failed book, and fled to Cairns in 1996 after having their assets in PNG frozen by the National Court.

Dame Carol Kidu has also highlighted concerns about the process by which Paga Hill Development Corporation acquired the land. Dame Carol wrote:

The original granting of the Title to Paga Hill Holdings Ltd was deemed to be fundamentally flawed and the 2000 Title issued to Paga Holdings Ltd was cancelled. Paga Hill Holdings then recreated itself as Paga Hill Development Company Ltd and reapplied for the Title. It also requested a reduction in the land rentals owing on the Title from K250, 000 to K50, 000. It is inconceivable that the land rent value of this prime land would decrease between 2000 (issue of first Title) and 2009 (issue of second Title in spite of the 2006 Public Accounts Report).

I question the ethics of the issuing of the second Title.

A change in the PAC Chairperson also resulted in a "review" of the original finds in 2006. The company (Paga Hill Development Company Ltd) has no fundamental rights to this land. Portion 1597 before the issue of what appears to be a fraudulent Title obtained by ignoring Section 67 of the Land Act had several “owners”, including the people of Papua New Guinea in the portion originally gazetted as National Park; the National Housing Corporation and its tenants (primarily public servants) ; the Police Department (portion allocated to Police Legacy).

The Paga Hill BEAST is surely a smelly beast. The People of PNG deserve better. A Commission of Inquiry needs to be set up in relation to this land deal and associated human rights abuses.