James Marape’s Corruption by Design: The Kroton Equity Handover

By PAUL L. KEBAIJA

The National Executive Council’s latest decision to decouple the 4.27 per cent Kroton equity from Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited (KPHL) and place it into a standalone Kroton Equity Option Special Purpose Vehicle (KEO SPV) has been sold to the public as a landmark move for transparency and landowner benefits. Under the 2009 Kokopo Umbrella Benefits Sharing Agreement and related provincial pacts, this equity was always intended for the five impacted provinces (Hela, Southern Highlands, Western, Gulf and Central) and project-area landowners. The government now claims the separation removes it from KPHL’s corporate structure, protects it from liabilities, and ensures direct benefits flow where they belong.

Yet the fine print reveals something far more troubling: the appointment of Mr Andy Hetra as Interim Chief Executive Officer of the KEO SPV for a full 24-month term. Hetra is not just any “prominent executive.” He is Prime Minister James Marape’s own Chief of Staff a senior advisor who has served in the Prime Minister’s Office for years, including during high-stakes international engagements and domestic policy coordination. The NEC has handed this man K30 million in seed funding, operational control of a multi-billion-kina asset, and responsibility for the critical valuation audit process. He is expected to report back to the KEO SPV board, KPHL, and the Prime Minister himself in his capacity as Trustee Shareholder within six months.

In a country blessed with some of the world’s most experienced petroleum executives, financial analysts, lawyers and project managers of Papua New Guinean origin many of whom have built careers at ExxonMobil, Oil Search, Santos, or in the Department of Petroleum and Energy the government could not find a single independent national capable of running this SPV? The message is clear: loyalty to Marape trumps merit, transparency, or even basic conflict-of-interest rules. Hetra’s dual role as PM’s advisor and now custodian of the very equity meant to benefit ordinary landowners creates an obvious and dangerous conflict. Who will truly hold him accountable when the Prime Minister sits atop the trustee structure?

It fits a pattern. The PNG LNG project has generated hundreds of millions in dividends, yet ordinary landowners and provincial communities continue to ask why benefits have not trickled down as promised. Parliamentary debates from Daniel Tindipu’s pointed questions to Peter O’Neill’s calls for direct landowner control show growing unease. MPs have already questioned the creation of an “obscure entity” to manage what should be straightforward equity for the people. Now the government’s solution is to install its own insider at the helm.

The rhetoric of “greater transparency and accountability” rings hollow when the interim CEO is the Prime Minister’s closest aide. True decoupling would have involved an open, competitive process, independent board selection with genuine provincial and landowner representation, and strict Chinese walls between the PM’s office and the SPV. Instead, we have another closed-door arrangement dressed up as reform.

Papua New Guineans deserve better. The Kroton equity belongs to the landowners and provinces who sacrificed for the PNG LNG project. It must be managed by competent, independent professionals chosen on merit, not political patronage. Until the Marape government stops treating state assets as personal fiefdoms, the promise of resource-led development will remain exactly that, a promise. The people are watching. The 4.27 per cent is not Marape’s to gift to his inner circle. It is the people’s equity. Time for real accountability, not another advisor in a new title.