Minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology, and Sports, Hon. Wesley Raminai has welcomed the National Court decision to dismiss a case filed by Joseph Teng Tomerop (plaintiff) in his capacity as recommended nominee to be member of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) Council.
The plaintiff filed an originating summons on the 21st April 2021 where he was seeking leave pursuant to Order 16 Rule 3 of the National Court Rules against two decisions of Minister Raminai made on the 23rd March 2021 and published in the National Gazette No G177.
Minister Raminai’s decisions were; the appointment of Acting Director General of the NARI and the appointments of the Interim Governing Council Members of the NARI which came into effect on 19th March 2021.
Presiding Judge Justice Nicholas Miviri in his ruling on the leave application last Friday ordered that the application leave by the plaintiff is refused, the case dismissed in its entirety with costs to follow the event forthwith.
Justice Miviri made these orders on the grounds that the originating summons by the Rules must seek leave only and not other remedy.
He said here, the plaintiff is also seeking interim stay which was abandoned when council was directed to the relevant rules of Order 16 Rule 3.
It draws no measure against
Minister Raminai is pleased with the outcome of the court proceeding brought upon him by disgruntled former council members of NARI and thanked the Judiciary for upholding the law in its totality to protect the assets of the state and maintaining the integrity of the office of the Minister.
Now I can concentrate on the business of NARI and its critical role in research into food crops that are resilient to various climatic conditions to maintain an adequate level of food security in the country.
– Minister Raminai
He said the next step is to appoint a permanent council to ensure that the organization continues to uphold the NARI Charter and its future sustainability.
In addition, I want to challenge the council and management of NARI to fit into the national government’s desire to drive commercial agriculture, import substitution and export earnings to improve our forex situation.
He said the national government has many competing development agendas and may not always expand budgetary support to small but important government agencies such as NARI.
Therefore, I believe NARI must come up with innovative ideas, products, services to generate internal funds to help cover budgetary shortfalls. NARI must also play relevant and useful roles to meet the evolving needs and expectations of the government, the business community and all keys stakeholders.
The Minister further said that NARI has capability and capacity to help government facilitate commercial agriculture. For instance, NARI purchased 69,000 tonnes of Galip nuts in Kerevat to produce over 4 tonnes of kernels in testa, in East New Britain.
He said there is opportunity to produce Galip oil for the global cosmetic market bringing in millions of dollars. Moreover, the Minister said there is opportunity to conduct research to add value to spice crops including plants for essences and medicinal plants.
Natural phytochemicals extracted from new opportunities can bring in foreign cash. However, Investment in processing technology and supply chain will cost millions of kina and seeking government funding will always be difficult.
Therefore, the challenge for the council and management of NARI to seek creative ways to finance the needed technology to fully exploit the opportunities.
He said such investments will benefit the growers immensely as they have a guaranteed price and a market for their commercial crops.
Also, exporting tertiary products into the global markets will command a higher price as opposed to exporting raw materials which are subject grading requirements. Revenue from these will improve forex and fund further research and development in NARI to sustain itself.
– Raminai
Approved for release:
Hon Wesley Raminai
Minister for HERST and Sports