BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

IF the national government is transparent and accountable to its people, then they should release information of how members of parliament spend their constituency funds, if not then forget the Anti-Corruption Bill.

These words were expressed by Paramount Chief Benedict Garimane of Ngaliamera, North Guadalcanal.

The Chief of Thimbo tribe highlighted that while he understands that the government has played its role in providing financial assistance to the constituency to help spur development in areas such as scholarships, water, sanitation and infrastructure, they don’t see the outcome of this assistance on the ground.

“I understand that the government has played its part in providing assistance so why don’t we see this on the ground,” he said

Garimane stressed that they have not seen any development in the constituency spanning from the rule of their former MP who took office for two terms to their current Member of Parliament, Hon Samson Maneka.

He calls on the national government to release information that will reveal how their former and current MPs have used government assistance throughout the constituency.

“So that we can see how they spent the money in areas such as in education, health, the church, schools and so forth,” said Garimane.

He also stated that it would be pointless for the government to bring the Anti-Corruption bill forward if they lack transparency thus disallow the release of such information.

Garimane again calls on the government to reveal how their MPs have spent government allocated funds in North Guadalcanal constituency for the past 11 and half years.

“While we are still waiting for this bill to pass in parliament the government must be transparent,” he said.

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BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO

THE ongoing programme to have clinics open until late has allowed the Honiara City Council (HCC) to have more medical doctors.

The initiative is being piloted at the Kukum clinic.

This was reported to this paper during an exclusive interview with the HCC Nursing services Manger Mr Arain Simbe.

He said the initiative has created an opportunity for HCC to now have seven doctors responsible for the Council’s three zones; eastern, central and western.

Simbe said the increase in HCC’s number of doctors helps against the huge queues of patients at the clinics.

“This opportunity helped nurses working in the three particular zones to have senior physicians assisting them in terms of increased life expectancy and improved well-being in society, dedication of skills for patient cure concerning diseases such as cancer for instance and giving persons diagnosed with terminal illnesses hope of living longer.

“They as well assisted in providing information which contain epidemic when disease outbreak occurred, also work to provide new cures for diseases, running drug tests on consenting patients and alerting the public regarding spreading of diseases to name a few,” he said

Moreover he stressed employing more doctors have been part and passion of HCC strategy to help assist nurses who work during the overlap shift from 7pm till 11pm.

Last week, deputy mayor of HCC Charles Aiwosuga acknowledged the success of the initiative and thanked public for their part in cooperating with the clinic staff.

He reported that there have been positive feedbacks to the initiative, adding that with the success of the pilot programme at Kukum, HCC is eyeing doing the same for Rove clinic.

This is said to be good news for the people of west Honiara.

POLICE in Kirakira in the Makira-Ulawa province are investigating an alleged unlawful damage incident which occurred at Ulahu Village, Ugi Island on April 3, 2018.

“It was alleged that a group of drunken youth damaged two tents that are used as temporary classrooms for students at Ulahu Extension School,” says Provincial Police Commander, Makira Ulawa Province, Superintendent Peter Sitai.

“There are about 30 – 40 early childhood students attending the extension school and those tents were donated to the school by the National Disaster Management office (NDMO) after the school buildings collapsed during the 2016 earth quake.

“This incident has victimised these young children from their education, and I want to make a call to the people of Ulahu to come forward with information that may assist Police in their investigation into the matter.”

Police in Kirakira can be contacted through phone 50299.

–POLICE MEDIA

By Mike Puia

LOCAL court in Malaita has been urged to speed-up with its cases.

A landowner from East Fataleka, who asked that his name be withheld because of the sensitivity around their pending case, made this call yesterday.

He said in 2017 the Auki local court failed to hold sittings for the 11 cases it listed for hearing.

The landowner said 2017 has gone by and there is still no hearing held.

He said the first quarter of the year is coming to an end but still there is no sitting over the 2017 cases.

He said they get no assurance from their local court in Auki of any date being fixed.

He said they are frustrated that the delay is affecting their plans and programs.

He confirmed the last time local court hearing was held in the Fataleka region was in 2016.

“We want cases to be cleared. Dragging these cases is not helpful to the peace in our communities,” the East Fataleka landowner said.

He claimed local courts appeared to be very quick to deal with cases on government owned land while land cases of indigenous are treated as secondary.

“The government sometimes feel the pain when its land is tampered with. We as landowners also feel the same pain yet the law only care to deal with government land. The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs must be fair to us,” the landowner said.

He added as a result cases lodged by locals sit in the local court shelves for years.

According to the landowners interviewed they won their case in the council of chiefs’ court.

Their case was appealed in the Auki local court and to date the case has not been heard.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE case of four men alleged of armed robbery at the Panatina ridge has been adjourned to April 9.

This is in relation to the case against Eddie Funubana, Silas Kwaota, Frank Firimolea and Nathaniel Erick Junior.

Yesterday the court was told that pre-trial documents have been prepared and handed to the defence lawyers to sign.

Therefore the court adjourned the case to April 9 to allow all PTC documents to be filed and for the PTC to be conducted on that date.

Olivia Ratu of the Public Prosecution appears for the crown.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE two cases of armed robbery at the BSP bank in Honiara were committed to the High Court yesterday for trial.

The committal ruling was made yesterday at the Honiara Magistrate Court.

The case for the armed robbery in Auki was adjourned for today to allow prosecution to provide a clear copy of the disclosures to the court.

These were the incidents that occurred in 2015 and 2016 where police alleged that men wearing masks and armed with weapons had robbed from the BSP banks in Honiara and Auki.

It was previously decided to have them committed to the High Court as their nature were serious; thus committing the cases to the High Court ensures higher sentences are imposed on the three cases.

One of the cases is in relation to the alleged robbery in 2015.

Police alleged that the men were robbing about $4 million after chopping off a security guard’s wrist between 10am and 11am of January 19, 2015.

Police said that after they took the money they drove off in the westerly direction at very high speed.

Police and the public chased the car which resulted in it crashing at Kakabona.

Police said when the car overturned five men came out from the car with knives and threatened that no one could go near them but residents at Kakabona chased them when they heard from police that they were the suspected robbers.

Another case is in relation the incident which occurred on November 27, 2015 in Auki.

Police said the men were armed with weapons and one of them had a gun and fired a shot while standing outside the bank as lookout, the court was told. Another accused stayed in the getaway car

Two others went into the bank and filled up bags with about SI$200,000 and US$10,000, the court heard.

The prosecution said that another shot was fired before the accused left the bank.

And the third bank robbery case was in relation to the attack on the two Asian businessmen outside the old Westpac bank, now BSP

Police allege that the four accused were masked and armed with a knife when they attacked two Asians as they were about to enter the bank.

One of the businessmen was struck with a knife and also shot from a sling, the court was told.

The Office of the Director Public Prosecution appears for the state while Lawyers from the Public Solicitor’s Office represents all accused.