Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister says incompetent bureaucrats have given developers a "free run" by granting a series of controversial leases.

ABC Radio Australia

A Commission of Inquiry's been investigating more than 70 Special Agricultural and Business Leases covering more than five million hectares.

Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has received the Commission's interim report which he'll table when Parliament next sits.

He'll also detail measures to overcome what the inquiry calls serious failings in a number of departments.

One of the most strident critics of the leases, known as SABLs for short, is Greenpeace.

The environmental group says they are back-door way to clear-fell forests and it claims many have been granted without the permission of traditional owners.

MOKO: The people of Papua New Guinea have been working for Prime Minister's reaction or Prime Minister's move on the report of the Commission of Inquiry, and this is about time we've had something from the Prime Minister and from Greenpeace we welcome the comments from the Prime Minister that there's serious concerns around the circumstances of the issuing of the SABLs.

FOX: In a nutshell because it's a very complicated issue Sam, what are Greenpeace's criticisms of SABLs that have been granted in recent years?

MOKO: The issuance of the SABLs over the years were mainly issued through corruption and fraud. And a lot of the SABLs that were issued were issued to foreign-owned companies and doesn't leave any benefits to the current landholders who are the customary landowners. Besides that five-point-five million hectares of land is a lot of land given away without proper processes and procedures.

FOX: Given your criticisms of SABLs you must be heartened to see the Prime Minister say that the interim report into the issue foreshadows serious shortcomings in the public service, that some agencies have failed to administer the law and that developers have been given a free run?

MOKO: The Prime Minister's comments and the press release shows how serious the issues are shows how serious it is dealing with the issue of SABLs. So we also welcome the language of the Prime Minister, that shows that there's got to be serious action taken to address that. We also welcome the two-month timeline that's given to the Commission of Inquiry commissioners to table the final report. And we would like the Prime Minister to be serious and very strict with the Commission of Inquiry about this timetable given, the long time that it's taken for the inquiry to table its report.

FOX: As you said the Commission of Inquiry's been given two months to finalise the report. What sort of recommendations would Greenpeace like to see come out of that final report?

MOKO: The most important one is this full report should be tabled in parliament and all the recommendations should be implemented in full. Any of those SABLs that are found to be in breach of the law should be terminated. Those that were done properly or not done properly should, the process should go back again to the drawing board and we should start the process again so we know who's doing, following the right processes.