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PNG’s District Development Funds: A Crisis of Secrecy

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A new report by the advocacy group ACT NOW! PNG reveals a systemic and widespread failure of transparency and accountability across Papua New Guinea’s 96 District Development Authorities (DDAs).

The second annual DDA Watch Report, covering the period from July 2024 to June 2025, paints a grim picture of “persistent secrecy” despite nearly K2 billion in annual government funding intended for service improvement and infrastructure grants.

The findings highlight a critical disconnect between rising public investment and a lack of basic oversight and public access to information.

According to Cathy Tukne, Information Coordinator for ACT NOW!, transparency should be non-negotiable.

“Without public plans, budgets, audits, and inspections, how can communities trust their development funds are well spent?”

The report’s key findings highlight a profound communication and accountability crisis:

Bar Graph documenting findings of District Development Authorities
  • Development Plans Remain Secret: While 37 DDAs have launched their five-year development plans (2022-2027), an increase of 16 from the previous year, a staggering 61% of districts still lack one. More concerning, only nine districts have made their plans publicly accessible. Geographically, the disparity is stark: Western Province and Bougainville boast 100% coverage, while entire provinces like Western Highlands, Madang, West Sepik, and Manus have no district plans at all.
  • Acquittal Reports Go Unpublished: Of the 72 DDAs that submitted their 2024 financial acquittals to the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD), only one, Talasea DDA in West New Britain, published its report. The report notes that 24 DDAs failed to submit their 2024 reports, and 35 are still outstanding from 2023.
  • Audits Are Non-Existent: For the second consecutive year, not a single audit report for any DDA was published. The Auditor-General’s Office cited “capacity constraints” as a key barrier, a finding that raises serious questions about the financial health and integrity of district-level spending.
  • Budgets Shrouded in Secrecy: The report found that 94% of districts are operating without a publicly disclosed budget. Only six DDAs announced a 2025 budget, and none of these were made public. This lack of transparency means citizens have no way of knowing how their tax money is being allocated or spent.
  • No Public Oversight on Projects: Despite DIRD’s mandate to monitor fund usage, no inspection reports on DSIP/DIP projects are publicly available. This failure to publish reports effectively shields project implementation from public scrutiny and accountability.

The report also detailed a communication crisis, with most DDAs being effectively unreachable by the public.

While 92 districts now have a named CEO, only seven have a working email address, and just 20 have a public phone number. The digital footprint is nearly non-existent, with only six DDAs maintaining an active website.

In response to these findings, ACT NOW! has issued a series of urgent “Calls to Action.” The group is advocating for the suspension of funds to districts without public plans or acquittals, and for action under the Leadership Code against officials who fail to publish required documents.

They also call for an expansion of the Auditor-General’s capacity to audit all 96 DDAs annually and for DIRD to step up its monitoring and reporting of projects.

The ACT NOW! report serves as a wake-up call, highlighting that despite increased funding, the foundations of good governance, transparency and accountability, are failing at the district level, undermining the potential for genuine development and citizen empowerment across Papua New Guinea.

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Court

NGO Boss Appears in Court for Identity Theft

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Brown skinned man with a beard

The Campaign Manager for advocacy group Act Now! appeared at the Waigani Committal Court on Tuesday (January 21) for Identity Theft.

Eddie Tanago, 40, from Northern Province appeared for his first mention before Magistrate, Carthleen Sopa.

As is the initial process for the Committal Court, Mr Tanago was read out his charges and rights.

According to police, on the 27th of December 2024, Tanago had “intentionally and without lawful excuse used an electric system, a Facebook account, namely Act Now! to use the identification of another person, Mr John Mosoro, the Managing Director for the PNG Forest Authority without his authorization.”

This action contravened section 15, subparagraph (b) of the PNG Cybercrime Act 2016.

A statement released by the PNG Forest Authority on the 12th of December 2024, following Tanago’s arrest on the 11th of December 2024, said the arrest is for posting defamatory remarks on the 27th of November 2024, against the PNG Forest Authority Managing Director, John Mosoro.

The Statement said, Tanago was “questioned on his actions in sharing a certain advertisement on social media.”

The advert carried a “face photo” (mugshot) of the PNG Forest Authority boss.

The advert was initially created by FM100 Talk Back Show to promote the appearance of the PNG Forest Authority Team.

Tanago and his organization, Act Now, reused the advertisement on their Facebook page to promote a blog on their website criticizing the PNG Forest Authority’s content on the show.

An act that has now landed the organization in court for using Mosoro’s picture without his consent.

Lawyer representing Tanago however pointed out to the court that the police files he obtained has the charges against Section 21, subsection 2 of the Cybercrime Act which is for Defamatory Publications.

Magistrate Sopa, however clarified that what she read out was the police files that were handed to her.

She proceeded with the proceedings under Identity Theft and adjourned the matter to the 25th of February for the next mention.

Section 15 of the Cybercrime Act is titled “Identity Theft”.

The charge is for “a person who intentionally and without lawful excuse or justification, or in excess of a lawful excuse or justification, uses an electronic system or device to either a) to access, (b) to manipulate, (c) to posses, (d) to use, or (e) to transfer a means of identification of another person without authorization of that other person.”

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Environment

More Evidence of Logging Crime in Forest Sector

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Round logs facing upward

Act Now! PNG has released a third report, highlighting yet again, one of the many logging abuses in Papua New Guinea.

Titled “Where is the Beef? The Wasu Cattle Farm Project”, the report points out the abuse of the Forest Clearing Authority (FCA) concession.

This new report is a case study out OF Wasu in the Tewai-Siassi District of Morobe Province.

The report is a third of a series and focuses on a project that is referred to alternatively as a cattle project or an integrated agriculture project, but to date, there hasn’t been any cattle on ground or any agriculture project.

The Morobe based Wasu Integrated Agriculture Project, received an FCA in 2019 and began exporting logs in 2021.

To date, it has generated over K15.6 (US$4.5 million) in log export revenue for Malaysian owned Wasu Resource Limited.

The new report highlights:
• Allegations by customary landowners that they did not give their legally-required consent to the project;
• The absence of any evidence that the logging company has established a cattle farm in the area, despite exporting logs valued at over K15 million since 2021; and
• Evidence from satellite imagery showing a logging pattern more consistent with commercial selective logging than forest clearance for agriculture.

In a statement released yesterday following the release of the report, Act Now! calls on the Government to act now and address the abuse of the Forest Clearing Authority (FCA).

An FCA is a type of logging license intended to allow forest clearing to promote use of land for the economic development. However, previous reports by ACT NOW! and others have discussed cases in which FCA licenses have been misused to facilitate large-scale selective commercial logging activities.

ACT NOW! is calling on the government to undertake an independent, public and transparent audit of all existing FCAs’.

Act Now! Campaign Manager, Eddie Tanago says, until this is done, log exports from FCAs should be suspended.

He said an urgent review should also be conducted to see if the Wasu Cattle Farm project is operating legally.

The full report can be accessed through the Act Now! website.

The other related reports are “Ten Years Without A Crop- The Wammy Rural Development Project” and “A New Forest Grab – The Mengen Integrated Agriculture Project“.

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Environment

ACT NOW! reveals evidence of illegal logging in ENB

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ACT NOW! reveals evidence of more illegal logging in new case study

ACT NOW! has released another case study report that reveals more illegal logging under the pretext of agriculture development.

This new report titled “A New Forest Grab” focuses on the Mengen agriculture project in East New Britain Province.

ACT NOW! says the report reveals how a Malaysian owned logging company, KK Connections, has used highly suspicious claims that will establish a forest plantation and agriculture projects to obtain a Forest Clearing Authority (FCA), which it is now using as cover to export thousands of cubic meters of round logs.

An FCA is only supposed to be used to allow the clearing of small, discrete areas of forest for agriculture or other land use changes, but satellite images analyzed by ACT NOW reveal the logging company in the Mengen area is roaming over a large area, selectively felling and extracting valuable timber with no forest clearance or agriculture planting.

The second report follows its first report, Ten Years Without a Crop, published last month in conjunction with Jubilee Australia.

The first report according to ACT NOW! revealed how another Malaysian-owned logging company, Global Elite Limited who has already sold US$31 million (115 million kina) worth of round logs from the Wammy FCA in West Sepik Province, but has not established promised palm oil or rubber plantations.

ACT NOW!’s Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago said to make matters worse, both reports highlight how the FCA logging operations have been approved by the PNG Forest Authority without the informed consent of a significant proportion of customary landowners.

He said just last week, Prime Minister Marape again reaffirmed his government’s commitment to the protection and sustainable management of our forest resources, yet the PNG Forest Authority is continuing to allow illegal logging across the entire country.

ACT NOW! Is calling on the PNG Forest Authority to cancel the Forest Clearing Authorities for both the Mengen and Wammy projects and to impose a moratorium on logging in all FCA areas.

In total there are 24 active FCA logging operations across nine Provinces which cover an average area of 61,849 hectares, the equivalent of more than 11,000 rugby fields.

Eddie Tanago, said: “FCAs are routinely being used as a loophole to authorize the theft of PNG’s forests. We call on the National Forest Board and PNG Forest Authority to extend the current moratorium on new FCAs, suspend logging in all existing FCAs and conduct a comprehensive public review of the projects”.

ACT NOW says it is also calling on the Independent Commission Against Corruption and the Fraud squad to open investigations into these illegal logging operations as they are continuing under the supervision of Forest Authority officers.

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