Thursday, August 1, 2013

Tribe urges chairman to report on K7m


By RAMCY WAMA

THE Palgei tribe in Jimi electorate has called on their chairman, Steward Mark of the Timber Resource Purchase Agreement (TRP) group to explain and clarify the use of K7m to them for leasing their land.
The spokesman for the landowners, Mr Kange Kel had raised this concern. The same concern was expressed by Jimi local MP, Mai Dop, on the floor of parliament early last month when he asked the Minister for Justice and Attorney General where the money is.
A total of K10m was allocated by the National Government but K7m was released through the National Forestry Authority to the TRP investment beneficiaries in 2012.
The money has not reached the rightful landowners and the next of kin for the investments their forefathers and fathers have made.
Mr Kange said, “We are still waiting for the K7m to be equally distributed among the seven sub-clans of the Palgei tribe in Jimi electorate. Mr Mark distributed only K50, 000.00 each to the seven sub-clans and advised us that he will distribute the remaining K6.65m when the money is cleared.”
He said since then, Mr Mark never returned to the village to to report to the beneficiaries on the balance.
“We demand an explanation and clarification from Mr Mark as to how he used the balance of the K7m payment,” Mr Kel said.
If the remaining K6.65m was used for investment purposes in other businesses, are the beneficiaries part of the investments?” Mr Kel asked.
He said the genuine landowners had used all the resources they had and some loaned money from creditors to finance their costs involved in following up on the balance since the payment was made in 2012.
“Now we are caught up with credits. The creditors are after us for their money. Our families and relatives back in the village are hoping that we will return home with the balance to share with them,” Mr Kel said.
He called on Mr Mark to explain and clarify publicly where the balance of the K7m is and if the money was used to invest in other busineses ventures, explain why he used the money for investment purposes without the consent of the beneficiaries.
“I want Mr Mark to explain to the office of the Public Curator, Department of Treasury, Finance, and the National Forestry Authority the use of the K7m.
“If the money was used to pay the creditors, then he has to provide the list of the creditors so that we can verify it with the creditors that are after us, the genuine landowners and beneficiaries.
“We want him to explain either on the media or back in the village so that the stakeholders of Palgei TRP and the government departments who facilitated the payments must know the use of the public fund,” Mr Kel explained.

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