WHY THE LNG RESOURCE OWNERS SHOULD BE CONCERNED WITH TRUST FUNDS HOLDING THEIR ROYALTY MONEY
by KARK SEMANU WHAT ARE TRUST FUNDS Outside of PNG trust funds are normally established as either medium term holding accounts whose contents at a specified date are turned over to a beneficiary, or to an account maintained in perpetuity, where the principal is never touched and only the earned interest monies are ever withdrawn. CORRUPT USAGE OF TRUST FUNDS: 1. LEAVING THE PRINCIPAL BUT STEALING THE EARNED INTEREST In PNG, the trust account concept has been corrupted in many directions. The most common reason for a politican or a government bureaucrat to want control of a trust account is to steal the interest monies accrued. That is a corruption of the traditional trust account in that they have no authorisation to do this. The interest monies earned belong to the government. The corrupt government official's actions escape the government's attention in many cases in this way: A government disbursement of a quite large amount of money is secured, let's say K2