PM Sogavare warns of bad times ahead for Solomon Islands if the country does not ‘unlock’

By EDDIE OSIFELO

PRIME Minister Manasseh Sogavare says the country needs to be unlocked in order to address the population growth in 20 years’ time.

Speaking in the motion he moved yesterday to allow Parliament to beg leave to offer thanks for the Speech which was addressed by his Excellency to Parliament on Monday, Sogavare said if the country does not address land reform, in 20 years, the people will face absolute poverty.

“I am asking, let’s grow up.

“Under current level of economic growth, we are in danger of losing our ability to look after ourselves in 20 years’ time,” he said.

Sogavare said it is a frightening scenario where no one wants to see happen.

“When we talking about getting out of business as usual, business as usual happened in 9th, 10th and 11th Parliament.

“Let think about development, let’s think about our people, let’s mature, let’s prepare to take tough decisions,” he said.

The government is pushing to table the report of the Federal system in Parliament within the four years.

Sogavare said they are still struggling to decide on the best structure for this country.

“We still talk about it, even before Independence we still talked about it what kind of structure we want.

“The Mamaloni report in 1997, people say we go into State Government, then we go into Provincial Government and when we adopted it, we don’t allow it to work,” he said.

Sogavare said they are still talking about structures; that’s why they don’t develop.

“We still find best ways to deliver government services.

“We still struggling to address the fundamental like land reforms,” he said.

The debate continues in Parliament today.

Public will access list of NGE candidates who complied with the law

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

PUBLIC will soon know which 2019 NGE candidates complied with the law and which ones did not.

Solomon Islands Electoral Commission (SIEC) has assured curious members of public that it will release the List soon onto their website, and through the media.

SIEC CEO Mr Mose Saitala said yesterday that his office is currently ‘finalising their formatting’ and ‘thank you message’ with the List for their website.

According to Saitala, uploading the List is a way of saying thank you too for the 2019 NGE candidates complying with the Electoral Act.

“We will be uploading shortly to our website the ‘List’ of Candidates who have successfully and unsuccessfully filed their statements of account as our way of saying thank you for those who had tried to comply with section 69 of the Electoral Act,” said Saitala.

Earlier this week, members of public requested the SIEC to release the list of candidates who submitted their statements of account.

They demanded that merely announcing the number of candidates who submitted is not enough – they want to see names.

A total of 79 candidates out of 331 contesting during the 2019 NGE were reported last week to have not filed their campaign ‘statements of account’ before the due date required under the Electoral Act 2018.

2019 NGE Election results were published on April 19 seeing July 20 was when the 90 days period given for submission of statements of account lapsed.

Having the general public’s call, SIEC’s confirmation yesterday to Island Sun somehow meets their request.

“Report has it too that there might be a few Members of Parliament (MPs) who have not submitted their campaign ‘statements of account’ on which seeing a list provided would confirm such information,” said members of the public.

It is a requirement under the electoral law (Section 69 of the Electoral Act 2018) that all candidates, successful and unsuccessful, must file their campaign Statement of Account 90 days after the publication of NGE election results.

Under Section 69 on campaign expenses in the Electoral Act 2018, it states;

1. Within 90 days after the publication of an election result under section 107, a candidate in the election must submit to the CEO a statement of account specifying:

(a) All expenses incurred by the candidate in relation to the candidate’s campaign for election; and (b) the source of all funds (including the amount received from each source) used to meet those expenses.

2. The regulations may make provision for the preparation and content of the statement of account.

Under Section 125; Campaign expenses and donations:

(1) A candidate whose election campaign expenses exceed $500,000 commits and offence.

Maximum Penalty: 50,000 penalty units or 5 years imprisonment, or both.

(2) A candidate who fails to comply with the requirements of section 69 commits an offence.

Maximum Penalty:

(a) 20,000 penalty units or 2 years imprisonment, or both; and

(b) 100 penalty units for each day the offence continues.

(3) A candidate commits an offence if the candidate accepts a campaign donation from:

(a) A person who is not a citizen of Solomon Islands; or

(b) A company with at least one shareholder who is not a citizen of Solomon Islands.

Maximum Penalty: 50,000 penalty units or 5 years imprisonment, or both.

(4) In this section, “campaign donation” means any transfer of property made, otherwise than by will, without consideration or with inadequate consideration that is intended to be used, or is used, solely or substantially for a purpose related to an election.

Candidates not complying with the electoral law on submission of campaign statements are now under investigation and possibly to face prosecution says CEO Saitala.

Sogavare and Auga rank top

By EDDIE OSIFELO

PRIME Minister Manasseh Sogavare and MP for Lau Mbaelelea constituency Augustine Auga rank top in the level of Constituency Performances per Constituency Development Funds output for 2014-2018.

PM Sogavare with 7,000-plus population in his constituency ranked first with 64 percent while Auga with population of 32,000 in his constituency ranked second with 63 percent.

Among the top four are MP for Hograno Kia Havulei Jeremiah Manele and MP for East Malaita Manasseh Maelanga.

Manele ranked third with 61 percent while Maelanga ranked fourth with 60 percent.

The ranking was made after the Ministry of Rural Development officers visited the 50 constituencies and collected data through their assessment on how the parliamentarians used the CDF on projects in the last four years.

Republic of China (Taiwan) had funded the CDF to the 50 MPs to help them address the rural social and economic developments in their constituencies.

However, there were a lot of public outcry on how MPs used the CDF which led to former MPs losing their seats in the recent election.

Even donors and civil society groups viewed the CDF as a political slush fund that can be detrimental to development.

But research by Colin Wiltshire and James Batley in 2018 found that in Solomon Islands, CDFs now make up around one-third of the development budget, or between 10 and 15 percent of total budget outlays.

In the last four years, all 50 constituencies, disregarding their size and population have received $6 million per year across the board.

As such in the four years term of Parliament, each MP received $24 million.

In the report received by Island Sun, Rennell and Bellona with around 2000 people was doing good after it settled at 5th place with 59 percent output.

However, the ranking did not reflect well on the other two small constituencies in the country namely Malaita Outer Island and Temotu Vatud.

Malaita Outer Island with a population of more than 1000 people came 15th in the ranking with 45 percent output.

Temotu Vatud led by Freda Tuki, with 800 people settled at 20th position with an output of 37 percent.

Member of Parliament for Lau Mbaelelea, Augustine Auga has welcomed the outcome of the ranking by MRD.

Auga said the ranking speaks for itself as a result of what he did in the last four years in his constituency.

“I have used the CDF well to help my people through upgrading of road and other social and economic projects,” he said.

He said this was the reason why he won by landslide with 4728 votes in the recent April 3 National General Elections.

Overall Ranking of the Level of Constituency Performances per CDF Programme Output 2014-2018

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

2019 National General Election (NGE) candidates who failed to file their Statement of Account will be referred to the Police for investigation and possible prosecution.

Solomon Islands Electoral Commission (SIEC) in their Press Statement on Wednesday this week said the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mr Mose Saitala will refer the candidates’ cases to the police.

SIEC said a total of 79 candidates out of the 331 contesting from the 2019 NGE have yet to file their ‘Statements of Account’ required under the Electoral Act 2018.

Final call was issued by SIEC through the media last Friday, July 19 for candidates contesting the 2019 NGE to file their ‘Statements of Account’ before last Saturday 20th, or prepare to face prosecution.

It is a requirement under the electoral law (Section 69 of the Electoral Act 2018) that all candidates, successful and unsuccessful, must file their campaign Statement of Account 90 days after the publication of NGE election results.

Under Section 69 on campaign expenses in the Electoral Act 2018, it states;

1. Within 90 days after the publication of an election result under section 107, a candidate in the election must submit to the CEO a statement of account specifying:

(a) All expenses incurred by the candidate in relation to the candidate’s campaign for election; and (b) the source of all funds (including the amount received from each source) used to meet those expenses.

2. The regulations may make provision for the preparation and content of the statement of account.

Under Section 125; Campaign expenses and donations:

(1) A candidate whose election campaign expenses exceed $500,000 commits and offence.

Maximum Penalty: 50,000 penalty units or five years imprisonment, or both.

(2) A candidate who fails to comply with the requirements of section 69 commits an offence.

Maximum Penalty:

(a) 20,000 penalty units or two years imprisonment, or both; and

(b) 100 penalty units for each day the offence continues.

(3) A candidate commits an offence if the candidate accepts a campaign donation from:

(a) A person who is not a citizen of Solomon Islands; or

(b) A company with at least one shareholder who is not a citizen of Solomon Islands.

Maximum Penalty: 50,000 penalty units or five years imprisonment, or both.

(4) In this section, “campaign donation” means any transfer of property made, otherwise than by will, without consideration or with inadequate consideration that is intended to be used, or is used, solely or substantially for a purpose related to an election.