Lands boss: Sort out issues before you register your land

By MATTHEW VARI

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 (Midweek Chronicle, PNG)

THAT was the call made by the Secretary for Lands and Physical Planning Romilly Kila-Pat, in reference to many issues by landowners after ILG certificates have been issued.

He encouraged them to sort out their issues out so when they were registered they would not have problems after the legal documents were given.

“My advice to the landowners is that from our experience is that they always initially agree to something, and the department facilitates that process, and by the time title is register and issued- they dispute and that is very common,” Secretary Kila-Pat said.

“They dispute among themselves and they blame us saying that we have done something wrong.”

“Our role is basically a facilitating role creating an environment for landowners to register their land, so when they come to us we document it and register it as conclusive and is evidence of holding a customary title.”

He said that with the new law on customary land registration- the message to the people was that if they wanted to register their land- the process used was no longer SABL, but they are encouraged to register their full customary land registration.

“When you look at the process of SABL and the process of customary land registration, they are both similar in nature but have different names- in terms of the documentation they are almost similar, where in order to register land identification of principle land owners must be done by way of investigation that has to be conducted.”

“We will provide technical support mainly in terms of advising them how to have the land properly surveyed, legally descripted, and conduct the investigation process on who the landowners are and without dispute we will proceed to register the land- the challenge is with the landowners to have all their issues settled before this occurs."

“That is one thing that has been misunderstood a lot, that anything that goes wrong after that is because of our doing- yes to an extent it may be but in almost all cases  we play a facilitating role only,” Kila-Pat said.