While acquiring land for the towers, Digicel PNG was known to have acquiescent third parties sign contracts without the consent of the true landlords. It is possible Digicel did not know this.

This gave illegitimate persons access to rental payments. It can be relatively easy to mislead illiterate and legally ignorant village people.

In circumstances where rent is deviated to third parties it is also possible for part of the rent to make its way into other corrupt payments. I believe I have evidence that this has happened within Digicel PNG.

I was in a position to observe this for a long time and I believe it is still going on today.

As a result there are many landowners from all over PNG who have discovered they are not receiving payment for the use of their land. When provincial Digicel offices say they cannot handle the issue or if they ignore complaints, landowners sometimes travel to Port Moresby to raise the issues at Digicel head office.

Here they are provided with many reasons why they are not eligible to receive rental payments.

The landowners are often asked, “Do you have any agreement in place?” The Digicel officers know very well that the landowners do not have the agreement as they have already signed a contract with another party.

The landowners of course respond “no” and are told "you must present the contract agreement to get payment and if you do not have the contract you are not the legitimate landowner”.

This process is repeated with all landowners as they seek to establish their rights.

Digicel PNG has also seems to have found another way to circumvent landowners who have a contract. They pay them just part, perhaps half, of what is supposed to be paid every six months.

Let me give you an example. Three landowners from Sepik, Morobe and Daru flew to Port Moresby to unearth information regarding why their rental payments had not been received.

After some time seeking answers, they were sent off with a promise that the money would soon be paid into their bank accounts. No payment was made.

Whenever the landowners checked, they were told “next week the money will be paid”. Eventually they flew to Port Moresby again to raise the same issues and confront the staff face to face, but no senior manager would meet with them.

A junior employee was sent with a message “the payment will be made next month”.

Other people who do not have the money to come to Port Moresby just give up.

Most landowners, even if they have a contract, do not have the erudition to bring these matters to court. And in the few cases where they do, they rarely have enough money to pay for a skilled lawyer. So the entire process becomes too hard.

Every Tuesday and Thursday outside the Digicel Officer at Section 494, Allotments 1 and 2, Kennedy Road, Port Moresby, frustrated landowners wait for their claims to be settled.

They will wait in vain. These people require assistance to exercise their rights and to remedy the wrongs they believe have done to them.

The CEO of Digicel PNG needs to step in and ensure his organisation is entering legitimate contracts and dealing with landowners fairly and honestly.

Landowners deserve to have their rightful rentals paid. They deserve to have legitimate contracts honoured and illicit contracts reworked.

Instead of taking advantage of the unlettered, this organisation should deal with them honestly and fairly.

To remain silent on these issues is to sanction them. It is to condone poor ethics and worse.

* The Papua New Guinean author’s name is known but has been withheld at his request