BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE former Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) who is the current Permanent Secretary for Aviation and Communication, Moses Virivolomo, has told the court that shipping grants were cabinet’s approval inserted in the MID budget of 2013.

Mr Virivolomo was the PS of the MID from 2011 to 2015.

He testified in court on the case against the outgoing MP for Savo/Russell Dickson Panakitasi Mua yesterday.

Virivolomo confirmed that Mr Mua received a $3million shipping grant on December 31, 2013 during the dying days of former PM Gordon Darcy Lilo’s government.

He said others already received the shipping on the second and third quarter and the shipping grant money was exhausted.

Virivolomo said the shipping grant was approved by cabinet and it was only ‘them’ who knew how the monies were allocated; the MID on the other hand only facilitated the payments.

He confirmed that $3million was paid to Savo/Russells constituency on December 31, 2013 for the purchase of new ship.

Defence Lawyer Leslie Kwaiga also put questions to the witness in relation to the payments and the list of recipients of how many and how much fund were allocated.

Virivolomo in response said that he couldn’t remember and also other documents were not disclosed to him like the cabinet’s minutes, only the conclusion part of it was disclosed to the ministry and it was for facilitating what the cabinet has approved.

Mua was arrested and charged by police in relation to the offence of conversion.

Prosecution will be calling 12 witnesses during the trial.

The incident occurred in 2013 in which Mua is being accused of converting $3m shipping grants for other purposes.

The allegation relates to an application that was submitted to the Ministry of Infrastructure Development by Mua, and according to the proposal document, the MP was seeking $3m from the SIG through the NTF in 2013 to purchase a ship for Savo Russells Constituency.

The proposal was processed and approved by the MID and the funds were paid on the December 30, 2013.

It was alleged that on January 2 2014 the Constituency Development Officer of Savo/Russells collected the cheque from the Finance and deposited to the Savo Russell constituency bank account.

Police further alleged that the MP started to make series of withdrawals from the account when the money was deposited until that money was completely withdrawn on the February 4, 2014.

Investigation revealed that instead of using the $3m to purchase the ship as its intended purpose, the MP allegedly paid $2.8m to a local company for the purpose of items such as OBMs and other equipment for distribution to his supporters in Savo Russell constituency.

It also further alleged that $200,000 of the money was withdrawn as cash and use for other expenses and not related to the purposes of the shipping grant.

Sirepu Ngava of the Office of the Director Public Prosecution appears for the crown while Leslie Kwaiga represents the accused in court.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

FOUR others, apart from the accused Dickson Panakitasi Mua, had their names revealed in court during trial yesterday.

The trial into the case against the outgoing Member of Parliament for Savo/Russell is currently underway at the Honiara Magistrate Court.

The then Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Moses Virivolomo, told the court that the dying days of the former PM Lilo-government cabinet had approved an extra $10million allocation through the contingency warrant for shipping grant.

He said three constituencies received $3million each while two other constituencies shared the remaining $1million.

He said constituencies receiving the shipping grant on December 31, 2013 were Savo/Russell constituency, North Malaita constituency, Malaita Outer Islands, North East Guadalcanal and East Guadalcanal constituencies.

Virivolomo said Savo/Russell, North Malaita and MOI constituencies received $3million each while North East Guadalcanal received $300,000 and East Guadalcanal received $700,000.

The money was raised by the MID on December 31, 2013 around midday just before the closure of the Treasury to be paid to those constituencies.

Virivolomo when asked whether they submitted an application to obtain the grants, he said yes they do but with very limited requirements.

However he said that they are just facilitating it but the approval was given by the cabinet during that time.

BY JARED KOLI

IN NADI, FIJI

SOLOMON Islands is among seven other Pacific island countries that the Government of India has assured of ongoing support to train its human resources on climate early warning system.

This is according to High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Fiji. Mr Vishvas Sapkal during his address at the start of a weeklong media climate capacity building workshop held at the Tanoa International Hotel in Nadi, Fiji yesterday.

“As a next phase, the project will focus on identifying talent from the participating countries so that the next training needs can be better encapsulated and a follow through programme can be developed to place emphasis on continuous learning,” HE Mr Sapkal said.

The seven focus pacific island countries under the Indian government’s commitment through the India are Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Tonga.

“We will welcome further collaboration with UNDP to ensure that the good work that is being started under this climate early warning system,” he adds.

The Climate Early Warning Systems (CLAW) in the Pacific island countries project is an initiative funded by the UN-India Development Partnership Fund and implemented by the UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji with support from the Government of India.

The India-UN Development Partnership Fund was launched by Minister of State for External Affairs of India HE Mr MJ Akbar in June 2017 in New York for supporting South-South Cooperation.

Earlier this year, in June to July 2018, Seventeen Pacific Hydrologists from the seven participating countries including the Solomons, traveled to Roorkee, India for a one-month intensive and specialized training at the National Institute of Hydrology in Roorke, India.

HE Mr Sapkal said India stands strongly behind its pacific compatriots as it feel their capacity to address climate change must be supported as climate change ultimately affects both large and small economies.

Meanwhile, Mr Sapkal challenged the role of government agencies, civil societies and the media to help fight calamities associated to the effects caused by climate change as many lives have lost and properties have damaged, although people have shown resilience.

The weeklong media climate capacity building workshop is also a collaboration between the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) Pacific Office in Fiji, the Pacific Environment Journalists Network (PEJN), with support from the Indian Government through the India-UN Development Partnership Fund.

Yesterday, participants have learned to understand the science of Climate Early Warning Systems, how it works in the pacific and how it relates to climate change. A panel discussion by senior journalists from the pacific was also convened to identify challenges and how to improve climate reporting in the pacific.

The workshop designed at strengthening knowledge and empowering the ability of journalists from the Pacific Islands including those from the seven focus countries – the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Tonga to report accurately and more regularly on Climate Early Warning Systems and related issues.

It aims to improving networking and partnerships amongst Pacific Island reporters and regional climate change experts, ensuring a regular flow of information and post activity.

“Improved news content in Pacific Island media through the conceptualizing, discussion and development of a range of relevant news and in-depth stories over the duration of the activity/workshops highlighting Climate Early Warning Systems and related issues.”

The goal will be to inculcate amongst these regional journalists a sense that these issues can be prominently mainstreamed into their daily reporting activities, instead of one-off seasonal events such as a cyclone or torrential flooding.

The workshop ends, Friday.

BY ELLISON VAHI

“YOUR life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.” Dr highlighted.

Dr Jimmie Rodgers Bird, Secretary to the Prime Minister, in encouraging people about HIV, stated that whilst the disease is frightening, we can beat it, can get rid of it, and even if we have it, we can manage it as such as we have a normal life.

“It’s one of the diseases that have very few rules so to speak. And the rules come backs to us. Its behavioural, it’s attitudinal,” he said.

He said that it is not something that we get like TB germs that comes in because the infection comes in.

“One we know about them but we don’t care, and it only hits us after we get it then we regret it.”

He also said that, if it is a malaria, it is fine because we can treat and cure it. But once it is something incurable then we will regret that one time when we made a wrong judgement.

“As it reminds us, life is precious and the choices we make determines our future and its not ours but the families we have.

“It also reminds us of the responsibilities as there are certain things we do so easy that can put us on certain situation where we are compromised.

“We know we go out every time, young people, and old people. But the most important thing is to know what this exposes you to and what you can get out of those exposes.

“To know our responsibility is, not only to others, but most importantly to ourselves. And to be able to accept responsibility of whatever happens that we have to take it forward as well we have to make sure that we enjoy life.”