The Land Board last Tuesday gave its full support to the Commissioner of Lands (COL) for taking action to forfeit Fixed Term Estates (FTE) previously owned by Pari Development Company.
Land Board Chairman Alfred Soaki in a statement said that the Board had been informed about the long and complex history of land allocation to the company in Noro, and that due to a failure of the company to stop selling land that was under forfeiture, the Commissioner had no other option but to complete the forfeiture process.
Soaki also stated that the Commissioner of Lands was locked into a binding consent order signed on the authority of the previous Commissioner, and this requires Fixed Term Estates over certain additional parcels to be also handed to the company.
He said however that the term of the Fixed Term Estates was not set in stone by the consent order, and therefore the Board agreed to grant Fixed Term Estates for very short terms.
Given that the company had previously held a Grant of profit for just 10 years, he said the Land Board agreed to grant Fixed Term Estates also for 10 years, minus the 2 years and 4 months that the company had the Grant of Profit before it was canceled, therefore the Fixed Term Estates would run for just 7 years and 8 months.
“The Board agreed that we will only give Pari Development the absolute minimum that we are bound to give, due to the company’s failure to work cooperatively with the Commissioner of Lands and the Solomon Islands Government,” said Soaki.
