Home Blog Page 1452

Western province urged to increase revenue collection

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

BY ALFRED PAGEPITU

GIZO

THE Western province government has been urged to increase its revenue collection to make up for ‘lost’ funds from the national government.

Provincial Member for ward 16, Ramrakha Talasasa, speaking during the sitting of the provincial full Assembly for the supplementary budget 2017-2018 on Monday this week, advised the house to seek other potential areas from which the province can gauge revenue.

“I am sure our treasury division is working closely with the out stations in further improving this matter,” he says.

Meanwhile, he adds that incurring a recurrent deficit, is not very assuring, especially taking into consideration the timing of the tabling of this midterm review which would be a disadvantage for the assembly to constructively debate on.

“Given the fact that there is only 48 hrs between the revised appropriation and the Budget Proper for 2018/2019 which not make much of a difference on the government’s position to effectively adjust its own work plan it its effort to improve on assembly recommendations.”

He said unutilised divisional heads raises issues of productivity and these divisions functioning to the best of their capacity.

He suggests the need for further review on their work plans and commitments.

Malaita finance minister on the province’s 2018-19 budget

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0
Minister of Finance for the Malaita Provincial Government Hon. Joe Heroau.

EARLIER this week the malaita provincial assembly has seated and debated on its financial budget for 2018 and 2019 financial year.

During the debate the Hon Minister for finance out lined the whole assembly with its estimated budget for 2018 and 2019.

He said, there are important matters to consider about this budget.

“This budget is still an estimate and does not constitute the actual we expected. The main reasons were; government is yet to pass its national budget where we can finally gaze our figures and make appropriate calculations. Secondly, we are yet to complete this financial year as we are now closing to its end.

In the outlook of the budget before us, may I outline important component of the budget. The budget constitute five (5) main components and they are; Summary Estimates, Recurrent Revenue, Recurrent Expenditure, Capital Budget and Debt Servicing. As usual custom for all the provinces, we required to practice a zero balance budget, therefore, you will note that this budget has a zero balance at then of its surplus/deficit column.

The Summary Estimates shows total revenue, total expenditure, total capital budget and total Debt Servicing. At the outset Mr. Speaker, the total Revenue estimate for 2018 is $18,317,866. Of this figure, local revenue contribution is estimate at $3,000,000 whilst the rest is supplemented by the fixed service grant of $14,967,866. The rest is said to be complemented by Timber right and contributions from other sources.

The Summary Estimates shows interesting information regarding the revenue. That local revenue remains all throughout the last three financial years between $2 million to $3 million. For fixed service grant it has great increased from $11.9 million to $14.9 million and remains constant since 2016. Recently, the government proposed to cut the fixed service grant by half, but was intervene by the all the Provincial Premiers to the Prime Minister not to reduce the fixed service grant. Therefore, the good news is; we still had the fixed service grant intact.

The Summary Estimates also shows the overall expenditure for the province. The total expenditure for the financial year is estimated at $18,317,866. While an increase of spending in 2016 fiscal year, there seems a drop in expenditure for the last three years. This is a good sign. Its shows some controls and we are beginning to follow the budget lines.

On the capital budget, the estimate for 2017/18 is being brought forward for 2018/19. The Summary Estimates shows that there is a huge increase in the Capital budget since 2014. The increase is from $385,423 in 2014to $29,006,308 in 2017/18. This is a great success story for the MART Government. We hope this figures will continue to increase for this financial year and the years to come.

In debt servicing as shown in the Summary Estimates, the total figures stands at $2,717,769. The breakdown of the total shows NPF amounted to $952,756, our outstanding creditors amounted to $430,000 and PAYE amounted to $1,334,112.

Let me make some points here. First the province must budget for its debt servicing. Therefore, figures appears do not necessary constitutes that we have debt almagated to the estimate indicated, except for PAYE; the province has a substantial outstanding of debt accumulated. For NPF the actual paid to NPF does not appear to give us light of how the province has paid some of its dues. As Minister responsible for the Treasury, the province has reduced its NPF debt. We should have less than $200,000 remaining to clear the outstanding. For the PAYE, a consensus being reached to discuss the outstanding arrears with the Inland Revenue Commissioner to consider write-off as bad debt on the outstanding. This is to allow us to start fresh in paying PAYE for our workers.

The 2018/2019 fiscal year Budget Estimates had some important points to be considered. Firstly on the recurrent revenue, that we are 80 percent depend on the fixed service grant from the national government. Secondly, our continuation succession of the budget depends entirely on our performances in the finance. Particularly for the capital budget, that our access to the capital budget rest entirely on the outcome of the PCDF assessments, thus, in another word, our capital budget is finance by the PCDF funding in which it means we must qualify for the minimum conditions imposed on us. Except for the new proposed chamber financed by the MPGIS, our contribution to the capital budget is an allocation of $250,000 to recruit engineers and other technical expertise to support the implementation of our projects.

Considering my points above that 80 percent of our source depends entirely on fixed service grants means we are financing the overall budget with 20 percent, in another way, our contribution to this overall budget is only 20 percent.

By carefully assess this 20 percent; four (4) sectors strongly uphold the 20 percent contribution to our overall budget namely; the Work, Transport and Communication sector which estimated to collect $1,182,800, the Commerce which estimated to collect $311,400, the Forestry sector which estimated to collect $665,000 and local council which estimated to collect $430,000.

A closer look at those indicated sectors shows they have strong support to our local revenue. The Works sector actual collection from 2014-2017 shows collections ranges from $170,165 to $474,785. By some common sense the amount indicated above is a huge increase compared to the actual.

The increase stemmed from Passenger Levy, new proposed areas namely the gate taking at the front wharf and the upcoming market gate taking. To enlighten the house, the wharf pass and market gate pass are new areas of revenue collection. Current MART Government is working on a strategy to increase our overall performance on revenue collection.

For the commerce, most of the revenue comes from business licenses mainly within the Auki urban areas. The actuals from 2014 to 2017 shows we have great potential to collect more from the business houses. We are working on a revenue strategy to improve collection on other sectors such as rural canteens, retails from sub-centers and rural liquor outlets.

In the same note for Forestry the actuals from 2014 to 2017 we have been collecting good revenue from this industry which ranges from $606,800 to $1,299,083. We are tightening collection in areas therefore; we have sent a team comprised of the Police to take stock on all logging camps. Information gathered more than 15 logging camps operate from the areas visited. Southern region is yet to be visited. We believe there could be more than 20 camps around Malaita.

The same also to be noted for the local council, that actuals from 2014 to 2017 shows we collected revenue ranges from $418,899 to $598,970. This is meanly from the market sales. We are anticipating increase for market in this financial year as soon we will introduce the gate pass fees, parking fees when the market fencing is done. This year will also begin enforcing the Market Ordinance which should be completed by now at the Attorney General Office in Honiara.

We regards to Expenditure as expressed in the Summary Estimates earlier, MART Government is trying to reduce and control its expenditure. The MART Government will continue to ensure we control our spending and will also demand from the administration to produce a monthly financial standing of the provincial government to monitor the financial status of the province.

There is a matter I should inform this house about, which obviously will have an impact on the budget. In implementing the MART Policy of local governance, the Ministry of Local Governance and Community Development will be recruiting 15 Community Liaison Officers (CLO) for 15 wards. These 15 CLOs their salary at L5 will be met by the province. Their operation costs will be supported by the Ministry of the Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS).

Whilst the rest of the divisions maintain a low budget six (6) divisions consume larger proportion of the expenditures namely: Office of the Premier with a budget of $1,177,433, the Provincial Assembly with a budget of $2,687,808, the Administration with a budget of $1,734,660, the Finance     & Treasury with a budget of $1,302,258, the Works, Transport & Communication with a budget of $1,088,517 and the Local Council with a budget of $1,260,908.

Note there is quite a substantial increase for the Administration Division. This increase was due to a plan to retire some of our old officers which will cost $300,000.00 and to hire a consultant costing $69,100.00 to study the recommended MICL Model to revive the Statutory Authority to begin operation on creating investments for the province.

For the capital budget, there is no new capital investment for 2018/19 budget. Note on your Capital Summary that the whole capital budget of $12,647,326 for 2017/18 is carry forward for fiscal year 2018/19. Therefore, there is nothing new for 2018/19 capital budget.

We have received advises from the Ministry of Provincial Government & Institutional Strengthening (MPGIS) that capital budget SIG allocated for all the provinces is $10,000,000 thus, a $40,000,000 cut from the $50,000,000.

Currently national budget is yet to be approved as the parliament continues to debate the budget. If the proposed SIG $10,000,000 is approve we could have serious problems with our PCDF projects.

Some MPAs had complaint that their projects have not included in the 2018/19 capital budget. Please note there is no new project for 2018/19 budget. Lack of funding from national government to transfer funds to our PCDF accounts for 2017/18 projects made us to carry forward all projects for the financial year 2018/19, whilst the capital budget for our new projects intended for 2018/19 is still debate and be passed at the national parliament.

Once we have the approved figures we will call for a supplementary budget to include your project for 2018/19 to be implemented.

I shall request the understanding of the MPAs on this matter as it is not our problem but a problem of the national government because these funds comes from the national government. Our Premier who has met with all other premiers on this issue can enlighten the house on this matter.

World Bank advocates more participation for women in Seasonal Worker Programme

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR EDITOR, quoting Radio New Zealand International – 2018 “Increasing the participation of Pacific women in Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme is one of the recommendations in a new report by the World Bank.

“The report, launched in Canberra, outlined a series of 11 Policy recommendations which would lead to greater benefits across the region from Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme.

“The World Bank’s Jesse Doyle said this included helping Pacific workers utilise cheaper ways of sending money home, increased participation for women and improved opportunities for countries with lower participation.

“So Tonga and Vanuatu are the two largest sending countries in the programme,” he said.

“So looking at ways that we can spread the gains across countries like Papua New Guinea and Nauru that have lower rates of participation.”

“There is about 14 percent women in the programme and looking at ways that we can increase that closer to 50 percent will be critical moving forward.”

“Then there are other measures like lowering the cost of sending money back to the Pacific.”

“The report, titled Maximizing the Development Impacts from Temporary Migration: Recommendations for Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme was produced by the World Bank with the support of the Australian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.” Copyright : RNZI 2018. (All Rights Reserved)

Yours sincerely

FRANK SHORT

The SFA steps up once again to help good causes in the medical field

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR EDITOR, I can report that the SFA has agreed, today, to provide the money needed to send 13 year old Myrin Siarobo from Malaita to Fiji to undergo a CT scan and for an investigation of her medical condition and stay in a Fiji hospital.

The offer to help the young girl and her family follows an appeal for help from her father, John, which was published in the Solomon Star newspaper this morning.

I can also say the SFA has also responded to my personal appeal for funds to cover the freight costs of sending two forty foot containers from New Zealand filled with 100 urgently needed hospital beds at the NRH, at the Buala hospital and at the main hospital in Malaita.

The beds will be supplied by Take My Hands Charity Trust (TMH) that has helped the medical service needs for the past three years.

The SFA previously very generously responded to my appeals on past occasions and funded the supply of more than 148 hospital beds to the NRH, together with hospital supplies.

Currently, a container is expected in Honiara any day loaded with furniture, mobility aids, eye glasses and clothing and footwear. The contents of the container I had requested for local NGO’s including the Referral Eye Centre and Hearts of Hope Charity.

Take My Hands managed to collate the supplies from a large number of donors in New Zealand and the freight costs were covered by the SFA following an appeal I made some 18 months ago.

I take this opportunity of thanking the President and Board Members of the SFA for the past and continuing help to good causes in the medical field and I am particularly appreciative of the SFA’s concern and help towards Myrin’s medical assessment and treatment.

I wish the young girl a speedy recovery.

Thank you sincerely.

FRANK SHORT

Taiwanese institution donating medical instruments

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR EDITOR, it has come to my notice that there exists an institution in Taiwan, namely “Global Medical Instruments Support & Service Programme”, which collects used but still good medical instruments/devices from institutions or hospitals in Taiwan, and donates them to hospital in other countries.

Quoting the information from their website it read:

“GMISS: The Department of Health (DOH), Taiwan, has announced a plan to provide essential medical equipment to countries worldwide. The DOH and the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) have jointly established the Global Medical Instruments Support and Service (GMISS) Program to provide retired but usable medical equipment collected from medical centres and hospitals in Taiwan. The equipment, which is well maintained and fully functional, will be offered to other countries to help improve their health care and medical services.

“The GMISS Program has established two portals to facilitate communication with all partners. One portal is for donors in Taiwan to provide key information about available equipment. The other is for countries to make requests for equipment. The requests will be promptly processed, and further communication will be handled by experts in medical instruments and engineering to ensure that sufficient information regarding the requested equipment accompanies the donation. Further assistance in training medical engineers in both Taiwan and recipient countries will be organized.

“It is the aim of the GMISS Program to assist countries around the world by providing the needed resources.”

Should the MOHMS in the Solomon Islands feel the GMISS Programme could be of help, I suggest referring to the website link http://gmiss.mohw.gov.tw/eng/english.asp

Yours sincerely

FRANK SHORT

SFA donates close to us$11,000 to pay for the shipment of urgently needed hospital beds

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR EDITOR, earlier this month I wrote a letter to the local media in which I requested donor support in shipping 100 hospital beds needed urgently at the NRH, the Buala Hospital and the main hospital in Malaita province.

Although a MOU exists between the SIMOHMS the government cuts in the medical services budget has meant there is insufficient money to cover the freight charges for the much needed hospital beds and the reason I found it necessary to appeal for help.

I am very pleased to be able to announce that the SFA’s President and Board has, once again, stepped in to help and an invoice for the early shipment of at least 94 hospital beds sent for payment by the SFA.

The beds are now being collected from contributing hospitals in New Zealand by my partner charity, ‘Take My Hands’ and as soon as sufficient numbers of beds are delivered to TMH’s Auckland depot, they will be packed in two 40 foot containers and shipped to Honiara for early distribution to the three hospitals.

I express my sincere thanks to the SFA and to TMH for supporting the appeal and to the local media for publishing news of the appeal that I launched.

Yours sincerely

FRANK SHORT

Samoans celebrate expansion of coconut oil exports

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR EDITOR, quoting Radio New Zealand International – 28 March 2018 “The future of Samoa’s copra industry is getting a further boost after a new joint venture was signed this month with Dr Bronner’s.

“The US multinational soap company’s founder Emanuel Bronner is a third generation master soap maker from a German-Jewish soap making family who used the labels on his organic soaps to spread messages of unity.

“And 3000 litres of Samoa’s premium coconut oil looks set to be delivered annually to the US mainland to make their soaps to service both US and European markets.

“The Americans held meetings with a range of coconut oil businesses, but in the end Fanene Sefo’s was picked.

“Managing director Fanene Sefo said there’s much excitement about the venture under the new brand SerendiCoco Samoa.

“The coconut industry has been in decline for many years. But now coconut seems to have been taken on as a product. It has become a lot more high profile and there’s a much bigger demand for coconut which is good,” Fanene Sefo said.

“He said copra farmers could expect to be paid close to $US600 (1500 tala) per tonne under the deal.

“Their farmers, both on Upolu and Savaii, are all certified as organic and fairtrade.

“It is good for the whole industry, especially the farmers at the grassroots level and we are also embarking on coconut replanting as a lot of trees are getting old and we have to make sure there is a sustainable source of coconuts and copra going forward.”

Does the Solomon Islands have the the potential for coconut oil product exports to the US and European markets? Copyright: RNZI 2018   (All Rights Reserved)

Yours sincerely

FRANK SHORT

Donor assistance needed to help rebuild or restore the Solomon Islands rural health clinics

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR EDITOR, quoting a report broadcast today, 23 March 2018, by Radio New Zealand International, the Solomon Islands Government is planning to slash the health budget by $US4.16 million dollars.

“The Ministry of Health’s Permanent secretary, Tenneth Dalipanda, said such a cut will put considerable pressure on service delivery.

“He told the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation that one thing it would curtail is the building of clinics.

“Dr Dalipanda said this comes amid the prospect of a continuing reduction in donor support for the health sector.”

More than 80% of the Solomon Islands population lives in rural areas with little or no work and increasingly denied access to proper medical care due to the broken down state of the country’s more than 130 rural health clinics built during the Colonial era.

The latest budget cuts, brought about once again by the cash-strapped Solomon Islands Government being unable to balance its books and reportedly having lost important revenue in the logging sector, as highlighted by one MP this last week, will mean a further deprivation of health care to the rural communities, especially as Dr Dalipada has predicted the budget cuts will curtail the building of health clinics and, presumably, the renovation of the ones now in disrepair.

For a country soon to celebrate its 40th year of independence it is really a very sad picture of what is prevailing in the rural health care sector.

It is my earnest hope that the countries with close diplomatic relations will soon aid the Solomon Islands with a re-building programme and provide new or restored health care clinics in the country’s rural areas.

Both France and Israel’s diplomatic Ambassadors accredited to the Solomon Islands recently promised aid the health care needs of the Solomon Islands and I would please appeal to both countries to step in and help the long suffering rural communities.

Yours sincerely

FRANK SHORT

Australia alumni urged to lead change

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

AUSTRALIA Awards alumni members have been urged to lead the tide of change in their communities and the country.

The Solomon Islands Australia Alumni Association (SIAAA) and the Australian High Commission successfully hosted a Gala Dinner on Tuesday, March 20, 2018 at the Heritage Park Hotel.

The Gala Dinner brought together recipients of the prestigious Australia Awards scholarships and people who have studied in Australia under the theme ‘Leadership” to network and share experiences.

Delivering the opening remarks, the Australian High Commissioner, Rod Brazier, welcomed Special Guest Speakers, Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela and Emeritus Professor Clive Moore.

Prime Minister Hou is an alumni member, having attended the Australian National University in Canberra. The Prime Minister delivered an inspiring speech on leadership urging attendees to lead change in their communities.

Prof Moore is internationally regarded as a leading scholar on Solomon Islands and first visited the happy isles in 1976.

The Alumnus were pleased to hear the Professor speak about inspiring leaders of Solomon Islands from an historical perspective.

Commending them as exemplars of the national motto, “To Lead is To Serve,” Prof Moore began with the late Peter Abu’ofa, acclaimed SSEM founder, and named leaders from all over Solomon Islands including the late Sir Peter Kenilorea Senior and Francis Aqorau Talasasa.

He also mentioned the first Solomon Islands postgraduate, Francis Bugotu, and the first USP graduate with a BA in 1973, Francis Billy Hilly.

Prof Moore presented a copy of his latest book, ‘Making Mala; Malaita in Solomon Islands, 1870s-1930s’ to the Prime Minister Hou.

Other guests include members of the alumni association, and representatives from the private and public sector, including staff from the Australia High Commission and Australian-funded programmes.

The Solomon Islands Australia Alumni Association is supported by the Australian Government and comprises all former recipients of the Australia Awards programme, as well as people who have studied in Australia under private sponsorship.

–SIAAA PRESS

Smoking residents at Tulaghi to move inland

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

SMOKING residents at Tulaghi are confirmed to move into a new plot of land allocated as work for a new domestic wharf there is soon to commence within July-August.

The Premier of Central Islands Province (CIP) Hon Patrick Vasuni and his Executive Government have met and passed the area of relocation just inland (upper hill) from Smoking area, confirming this to Island Sun yesterday.

A meeting was held over the weekend to inform Smoking’s resident’s in which locals contacted expressed their appreciation for the caring assistance provided by CIP’s provincial government.

Hon Vasuni said that a surveyor will be hired to do subdivisions before Smoking’s residents will be plotted into their land area provided.

The piece of lands to be subdivided are said to be within 15 to 20 square metres.

From humanitarian understanding is why the Premier’s Executive Government suggested arranging a piece of land upper hill of Smoking area for residents to move there under certain conditions.

“Though we are sorry for the force of relocation, we have to move on too with developments,” said Hon Vasuni.

“Residents at Smoking area have always been effective participants in the province activities so they deserve too to be relocated in a suitable environment for their livelihood.”

It is understood that the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) is to build the new domestic wharf for Tulaghi.

Families settling at Smoking area are islanders from different provinces who went to work at Tulaghi during when Solomon Taiyo and the National Fisheries Development (NFD) were operating in CIP.

The islanders continue to live and generate at Tulaghi amongst the former fishing companies left areas ever since after they left for relocation. One of the areas living within is at Smoking which was a place for smoking fish during the past.

ENDS/////////

1...1,4511,4521,453...1,662Page 1,452 of 1,662