A Papua New Guinea MP has questioned the granting of a lease over state land to a beer brewing company owned by the prime minister Peter O'Neill.
Pacific Breweries Ltd has been granted a series of Special Purposes Leases for conjoined slots of prime land in Port Moresby.
PNG PM Peter O'Neill Photo: AFP / Peter Parks
The lease decisions have been gazetted by PNG's National Land Board, as approved by the Minister for Lands and Physical Planning, Justin Tkatchenko.
An opposition MP, Oro Governor Gary Juffa, said the granting of the leases was disappointing and raised ethical alarms.
Mr Juffa said the last thing PNG needed was more breweries gaining a foothold and driving social problems.
He said it was ridiculous that PNG's prime minister was promoting this type of business in the country, and being supported by the state to advance that business.
"We need to be looking at business that contribute to the well-being of our environment, our development goals etc." he said.
Beer Photo: wikipedia
"We should not be contributing to any type of business that's going to encourage drinking, gambling, these type of activities which are counter-productive to the development of any society."
According to Mr Juffa, the decision was a slap in the face for churches, NGOs and other people who have struggled for years to get land titles.
"And yet this (Pacific Breweries' lease) was fast-tracked in the blink of an eye," he said.
