by Quinton Alomp – EM TV, Port Moresby
Port Moresby Technical College, is angry that the Exxon Mobil run technical school adjacent to it, is to be handed over to a joint venture agreement between a United Kingdom-based company, and the Enga Children’s Fund.
The POM Tech Governing Council said it was not happy with this arrangement, saying it was in total breach of the 2009 agreement.
That agreement allows for Exxon Mobil to complete training for its technical experts, and to hand the property back to the state.
POMTECH says, it has interests in that arrangement.
The governing council said the agreement with company Orion Group and its joint venture partner, Enga Children’s Fund, to take over the Exxon Mobil facilities inside the POM Tech college premises, has a lot of what they described, as ‘inconsistencies’.
The council says in 2009, an agreement was signed by then Esso Highlands Managing Director, Peter Graham, and then Education Minister, James Marape, allowing the return of the Exxon Construction Training Facility, to Port Moresby Technical College.
The college council says that the expiry date of that agreement was June 2014, but since then, they claim to have been sidelined in the negotiation.
Chairman of the POM Tech Governing Council, Heni Frank, said the college had, last year, submitted its proposal to take over the facilities, but the National Executive Council preferred submissions made by the Orion Group, and the Enga Children’s Fund.
They claim proper processes were not followed, and urged the government to review the decision.
Port Moresby Technical College says it has plans to develop into a polytechnical college, with interests over the state of the art facilities built by Exxon Mobil.
They claim to be the custodian of the 5.2 hectares of state land, occupied by the Exxon Mobil Training facility.
Enquiries with Exxon Mobil, resulted in an official response, saying that as per the agreement with the state, Exxon Mobil had already relinquished the ownership of the training facility, back to the PNG government, and it was the PNG government’s prerogative on the future of the facility.
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