POLICE in the Makira Ulawa province have successfully mediated a long standing land issue between a logging company and landowners during a meeting held on January 23 at Kirakira.

The long standing land issue involves a logging company currently conducting logging operations on disputed customary land in Central Makira.

During the meeting, Chaired by the Provincial Police Commander (PPC), Makira Ulawa Province, Superintendent, Peter Sitai, the tribal leaders with representatives of the company to resolve:

• The road block by landowners be lifted as of January 23, 2018,
• Through a new agreement to be drafted by all the parties and signed within five days as from January 24, 2018.

PPC Superintendent Peter Sitai explains, “Some members of the land owning groups of the Beana customary land in the Central Makira Constituency were not happy with the initial plan to allow one single tribal member to sign on behalf of the different tribes. The disagreement had led to some of the landowners frequently erecting road blocks preventing the company’s operations to continue.

“The police is mandated by law and has a role to play in any dispute and this is to mediate, ensuring the dispute is resolved amicably.

The outcome of the mediation meeting has been welcomed by the logging and land owners.

The company’s operations will now continue as all the parties implement what was agreed on during the meeting in Kirakira.

Sitai says, “The police is neutral and does not in any way take sides with any of the disputing parties.

“I appeal to landowning groups in the Makira-Ulawa Province to think about the benefits and the side effects of logging operations or any other business before signing any agreements because if these things are not planned properly then it will lead to disputes within families and communities.”

–POLICE MEDIA

BY BEN BILUA

TRANSPARENCY International (TI) 2016 Corruption ranking shows Solomon Islands sitting at 72nd position out of 176 countries with a score of 42 out of 100.

The ranking indication certify zero as highly corrupted countries and 100 as very clean and corrupt free countries.

From the ranking, Solomon Islands can be described as average country with corruption existence in the society.

Research found that higher-ranked countries tend to have higher degrees of press freedom, access to information about public expenditure, stronger standards of integrity for public officials, and independent judicial systems while lower ranked countries affected by opposite system.

It is said that lower-ranked countries in TI index are plagued by untrustworthy and badly functioning public institutions like the police and judiciary, even anti-corruption laws are on the books and practice, the legislations and institutions are often skirted or ignored.

TI report stated that lower-ranked countries are frequently faced with situations of bribery and extortion, rely on basic services that have been undermined by the misappropriation of funds, and confront official indifference when seeking redress from authorities that are on the take.

The higher-ranked countries are not immune to closed-door deals, conflicts of interest, illicit finance, and patchy law enforcement that can distort public policy and exacerbate corruption at home and abroad and that most obvious forms of corruption may not scar citizens’ daily lives.

According to the report, Solomon Islands continues to face numbers of corruption challenges fuelled by the size of the country and its geographic features, low state penetration, weak central institutions, of the region and specific governance challenges associated with the management of natural resources.

It is highlighted that corruption manifest itself in a variety of forms, ranging from petty corruption, embezzlement, grand and political corruption and various forms of nepotism and patronage networks.

Corrupt practices in the management of natural resources are specific areas of concerns given the current prospects of transitioning from a logging to a minerals-based economy in the coming years, with the country insufficiently prepared for the transition.

The development of the anti-corruption strategy, a freedom of information policy, the enactment of an anti-corruption bill and a whistleblower protection bill as a precursor to a right to information bill, as well as reform to strengthen existing anti-corruption legislation and institutions are action taken to fight corruption.

In the meantime the report highly recommends that measures can be taken at the agency level to empower staff in their interactions with public officials to resist acts of bribery and extortion.

Such measures typically involve having clear anti-corruption guidelines and principles in place, building the capacity of staff to deal with such situations, and empowering them to report safely and transparently on such occurrences through internal policies, training and practical guidance.

The report stated that there are few operational policies, strategies and tools publicly available to assist agency staff in resisting such extortion.

Donors can also help influence the overall country context by fully harnessing existing internal and external reporting mechanisms and using citizens’ accountability tools, including new technologies, to resist petty bribery.

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

THE National Referral Hospital (NRH) is reportedly in urgent need of blood donations to meet the high demand for blood transfusion by patients.

NRH’s Medical Lab Manager, Mr Donald Tahani reports “Currently, to be honest blood stored in the lab did not cater to half the patient’s high demand here, and we need blood every day and night to handle patients.”

Tahani said low blood supply is a long standing issue the hospital has been facing, and the urgency is felt when emergency cases arise.

One challenge Tahani says they are facing is called the ‘wantok syndrome’ whereby people are only willing to donate blood for their relatives.

Tahani highlights that this does not solve the low blood supply issue.

He also adds other factors are less staffing, and this has imposed delay to implementation technical services needed to, and coordination with relevant organisations.

“We always seek support from government, but despite challenges encounter we work on what at hand. It was challenging but we trying to promote blood donation according to our strategy,” Tahani said.

He said NRH and Solomon Islands Red Cross are partners and they have worked directly with schools, companies and government ministries.

In the mean time, the NRH desperately needs more volunteers for blood donation.

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

CENTRAL Islands Province (CIP) Provincial Government hopes to benefit this time round from the National Transport Fund (NTF) once budget is set.

CIP is the only province in Solomon Islands that has not benefited from the 2016 NTF under the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID).

This was revealed by CIP’s Premier Hon Patrick Vasuni after an awareness programme at Tulaghi held by NTF.

“During our consultation, they showed a slide informing us of the transport fund for roads, bridges and other infrastructure maintenances that all other provinces benefited from except Central Province,” said a very disappointed Premier.

According to the Premier, NTF have now got their views during the recent awareness in order to include and implement CIP’s needs towards development for infrastructures.

Some of the infrastructure developments that the province is eyeing Hon Vasuni made mention off are the airstrip to be developed at Mbokolonga, road maintenance around Tulaghi and the road to be developed from Rara to Boromole Villages to support shipping services and other areas.

“Though it may be challenging as there are many infrastructures to be funded for but one particular area developed is better than nothing at all,” said the Premier.

By Mike Puia

THE Solomon Islands Public Employees Union (SIPEU) is not giving up hope in pursuing a claim on the government to compensate government workers who were involved in operations at the border separating Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands during the Bougainville crisis of 1988 to 1998.

During a courtesy call last week, SIPEU brought back the issue before Prime Minister Rick Hou.

SIPEU’s General Secretary, Robert Au, said their union wants to see its members, who had risked their lives during the crisis, compensated.

Au said to date only members of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) have had their claims paid.

He said government workers who served under marine, quarantine, immigrations and customs also risked their lives.

Au said some government workers are still working, some have retired and others have died without compensated for their vital service.

He said police were at the frontline during the crisis but government workers played support role like logistics, site clearance, electrical work and many others at high risk.

Au said from 2014 to 2015 they wrote to different government ministries to help facilitate this claim.

He said there is a working group within the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) that is working and following up on this issue.

Au said when they raised this issue with Prime Minister Hou, he acknowledges the claim but advised the union to continue and check with line ministries.

“The feedback we get is, we need to produce a genuine list” Au said.

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

A family at Feraladoa of Kola Ridge have suffered food poisoning from salted fish bought from Honiara’s central market.

Three members of the family are reported to be in critical condition.

A Mr Andrew Dani, relative of the family, explains the mother had bought the contaminated fish for their lunch yesterday.

However, after eating their lunch, three family members; two elders in their 30s and a young person, began experiencing vomiting, intense headache, red eye, nausea and fatigue.

The family is said to be seeking medical attention. They are calling on authorities to address the issue of contaminated salted fish being sold at the market.

“Our concern is we want health authorities and HCC health division to carryout inspection in the boats and market as well because it is also important for people’s health and consumption,” Dani said.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE High Court will look at better ways to manage election petitions and is urging lawyers to cooperate and work towards achieving that goal.

Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer said the 2014 election petitions were filed and were allocated with the hope that it will be completed as soon as possible, however at that time there was a shortage of judges on the bench.

He said unfortunately the hearing have taken longer than expected.

Sir Albert said the point remains and the issue of delay must be addressed for future election petitions.

“I am looking at other ways of better managing and controlling election petitions including the appointment of two to three Commissioners of the High Court to specifically deal with election petitions,” Sir Albert said.

He said the activity is not cheap and require full government support to provide funding to enable the courts in engaging extra judicial officers specifically to hear election petitions.

“Our goal for future election petitions would be to have all such petitions completed within six to 12 months, a bold aim but I will be asking lawyers to cooperate and work towards delivering that outcome.”

Therefore Sir Albert said that the courts noble goal is to have cases completed within reasonable time and judgments delivered timely.

Out of the three outstanding election petition cases one of the cases has been strike out by the High Court last Friday in which only two cases are currently remaining before court.