A couple are in custody over alleged sexual abusing of children in the Reef island, Temotu province.
The wife has been allowed to remain at home and babysit their child while waiting for the court hearing.
Provincial Police Commander (PPC) for Lata police Mr Frank Menasa told Island Sun yesterday that investigations are underway.
“The accused was alleged sexually abusing children since last year and continue on this year and investigation on this case is still underway at this time.”
He said the victims include males and females in the communities allegedly prowled by the accused.
“And the charges will be determined if the accused are found guilty,” said Menasa.
ANZ bank pulling out in Auki Malaita Province has got the Bank of South Pacific (BSP) Country Manager Mr David Anderson calling on concerned customers to bank with BSP.
He said they have business facilities in Auki as there are two ATM machines and Officers to help them sort their frustration in having to travel to Honiara to do their banking.
“Just want to get the message out to ANZ customers that they can do their banking in Auki if they transfer their account to BSP,” said the Country Manager.
“If you’re a business then there are a number of genuine business customers that have opened an account with BSP so any that has a complication there can seek our branch so that we can open an account for them.
“So I want to take the opportunity to assure ANZ customers that we have no plans of leaving in the long term.”
The Country Manager went on to elaborate that there are a number of electronic options.
“There are the ATM machines and mobile banking or customers can use merchants with their BSP Account cards and do other small cash transactions using these electronic options.
“We are in Auki for the long term and we will be helping those who want to be our customers at anytime. We understand the ANZ customers concern as ANZ have been there for so long.”
Recently, it was published on Island Sun that ANZ customers in Auki had raised their frustration and concern over the bank pulling out from Auki.
It was reported that customers had to travel to Honiara to do their banking.
ANZ is the third bank to pull out from Auki after Wespac and DBSI.
Truths creeping out as no-confidence motion winners turn on each other
BY BEN BILUA
MEMBERS of Parliament who had moved the no-confidence motion did so with their own agendas and pre-determined portfolio holders for a new government, it is revealed.
Instead of celebrating in solidarity, the movers of the successful motion of no confidence against former prime minister Manasseh Sogavare are embroiled in an internal battle for power.
Speaking to Island Sun last night, a source close to the affair says the group which had defected from the Democratic Coalition for Change (DCC) government, colluded with the Independence group and had set their agenda before teaming up with the Official Opposition group.
They had already earmarked their own members to the top positions, a move which did not go down well with members of the Official Opposition.
As a result, seven MPs from the Democratic Alliance (DAP) and Solomon Islands People’s First parties moved to the Heritage Park Hotel camp and joined the DCC government.
The source says the key players behind the motion wanted the top positions in a new government – the prime ministership (PM), its deputy (DPM), finance (MOFT), and development planning and aid coordination (MDPAC).
The source stresses that the reasons tabled in parliament during the motion’s debate were all a front concealing the real intentions for the motion.
“They already allocated the portfolios before they team-up and move the motion of no confidence and when they won, they want to push for their agendas not knowing that such simple mistake will break-up the opposition camp.
“This the reason where some of us have to jump to the other side of the house because we realise that something is wrong,” the source said.
The source furthers that the truth behind the motion will be revealed in the coming days, which should be interesting for public to make their own judgement from.
“It’s a democracy system of the country but leaders must do the right thing making good decision, but in this case we hardly distinguish the motive behind the motion and the interest of transforming the country’s development aspiration,” source said.
The source strongly emphasised that leaders should be reminded that they are elected to the post to represent the welfare and development of the country and not their own interest.
MY one day trip to Rennell last week was never intended to investigate logging and mining operations on the island. But with a bit of time on my hand, it was pretty hard to pass up such a golden opportunity.
It’s what seasoned journalists the world over often faced: making on-the-spot decision, particularly if the issue they are on to will satisfy the bosses in terms of producing a good story for their newspaper or television and radio.
That was my dilemma two Mondays ago after arriving at Tingoa Airstrip on Rennell that morning. The controversies surrounding logging and mining operations on Rennell were too widespread and indeed and too inviting to ignore.
A recent letter which Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare wrote to one of the mining operators on the island added fuel to the controversies. It made it a candidate for a good story.
That letter gave bauxite mining there, at least for one of the two companies operating there, a rather odd twist. Despite on-going complaints by landowners, Mr Sogavare appears to have ignored the people there and their complaints.
Worldlink resources
Instead, he spoke in glowing terms of what the mining company is doing, particularly the delivery of its social responsibility to communities and people of Rennell, particularly those who live in the mining tenements area, including at Tingoa.
As a result, landowners in the Tingoa area have clamped down on further mining on their land. At one point, they seized a mining truck, which tried to enter their area. That truck remains in the custody of landowners today just outside Tingoa airstrip.
And so I set out that Monday afternoon on a hired open back Ute. My intention was to visit Lavangu, West Rennell. Lavangu, I was told, is where large stockpiles of bauxite are stored, ready for export. It is here that overseas bulk carriers would pick up the “red stuff” to take overseas for refining and sale for hundreds of millions of dollars.
I was told Lavangu was about two hours’ drive away each way. Because we didn’t have time, it was decided that Worldlink Resources mining operations around Lugigi, a domestic seaport used for loading bauxite, would be sufficient for my purpose.
“Their (Bintang Mining Company (BMC) and Worldlink Resources) mining practices and treatment of landowners are the same,” my guide said.
WorldLink Resources is the smaller of the two in terms of scale, he said.
“First, I want to show you how much damage these people have done to our land. They left huge areas that they dug up without covering them as they should have,” the driver/guide said.
Mining in Rennell
As we turned off the main road, the clearings were clear. Further up the road, once used by loggers, there were more clearings. The destruction of the top soil on both sides of the road was unmistakably mining. The devastation of this once virgin forest was an eye sore.
Some of the sites were old, others were not so old. One thing they share in common is that the company has failed to cover the top soil by land-filling and tree-planting.
Can I get down to take some photos?, I asked.
“Yes sure. The people outside Rennell need to know what is happening here. The mining practice engaged here is destroying the future of our children. Land is their future but this kind of mining practice simply denies our children of any future.
“What the mining companies do is that as soon as they finished digging up the bauxite from the roadside, they simply left without covering the gaping holes they had created. They are doing that with ease because there is no one around here to monitor their activities,” he said.
My guide said landowners had repeatedly asked the government for help in two main areas.
“First, we want from the government to ensure the mining companies comply with the environmental requirements that they cover the top soil and start planting trees over the areas they dug up.
“Secondly, we ask the government to clarify to us other minerals which are being mined with the bauxite. We know that at least there are four other minerals that are being taken with the bauxite.
“Because if that is the case, the companies are robbing us substantial amounts of money. The government it seems has ignored us,” the guide said.
“Now I will take you to where they have their stockpiles before we visit their camp,” he said.
The makeshift stockpile of the raw materials covers a large area on both sides of the road. Some heaps are about five metres high and two metres deep. Lower piles are covered with large green canvas.
As we were turning to head to the Worldlink camp, the driver stopped the vehicle and pointed in the opposite direction.
“That’s Lugigi up there. But we are not going there,” he said as he cranked up the engine and drove off. Minutes later we arrived at the Worldlink camp. Mechanics were busy repairing some of the heavy equipment and machines.
As we left the camp, I put the question to him – that according to the Prime Minister the mining companies are exemplary in their work particularly in delivering social services such as building schools, water supplies and so on.
“No, no, no. That’s not true. These companies have been working here for many years now and there’s not a single project they have provided to villages in and around here,” he said.
“For sure those things were in the agreement. But there’s nothing tangible on the ground. In fact, they keep the money that is supposed to be used in these projects. It includes royalty payments,” he said.
“The reality is that payments are made into special bank account(s), which the company keeps. These are large amounts of money, but no one knows who takes the interest on the money in the accounts.
“In the case of royalty payments, they never pay landowners the full amount at one time. Instead, they simply make payments in small amounts. The largest amount they pay at any one time as far as I know was $150, 000 to be shared by landowners. The rest of the money simply stays in the account in the bank collecting interest,” he said.
“Just imagine how much money there is in royalty since the government raised the royalty rate to 6.5 per cent from a mere three (3) per cent. It’s millions but we don’t get to see any difference at all, he said.
“So our question is where does the extra money go?”
“These wakus (Chinese guys) are very, very clever when it comes to money. Apart from paying less, they made sure every single thing given to you as a landowner is taken off your payments,” he said.
As I was waiting for my early morning flight, I was introduced to a young man, who seems to have given up on the fight with the government and the mining companies.
“Alfred, the truth of the matter is that our rights have been removed from us. That’s the reality we face today. The government through its dealings with the mining companies has taken away all our rights … rights to ask questions and our collective rights as an ethnic group,” he said.
In Honiara, a spokesman for Worldlink Resources said the company never moved away from its commitments in mining agreement it signed with Rennell landowners.
“But we want to keep a low profile, so please do not publish anything about our activities there,” he said.
To date Worldlink Resources have made seven bauxite shipments including one which left about three weeks ago. Payments are made to landowners after every shipment
Bauxite is big money. It is estimated that each shipment contains around 80-thousand cubic valued at USD70 per cubic. In simple maths, each shipment is valued at around USD5.6 million in sales (about SBD43.68 million).
Based on the figures above, the company has sold about 560, 000 cubic of the red stuff, valued at roughly SBD306 million.
Values of other valuable minerals included in the “dirt” are not included in the sales figures because mining companies successfully argued that other minerals were too small to be included in the equation.
LEADER of Opposition Jeremiah Manele says his group supports the motion against Manasseh Sogavare based on democratic rights and legislative mandates the country has since independence.
Speaking in Parliament on Monday, the MP for Hograno, Katova, Kia and Havulei said the Opposition Parliamentary Group is exercising their democratic right to provide check and balance on the government.
He told parliament that the motion of no confidence is the last resort to overthrow a legislate government and that his group took the decision to support the motion for the sake of the people of Solomon Islands.
“My group has no option but to support the motion on behalf of the people who suffered inadequate health and medical services lack of employment opportunities, for the rural populace who continued to be neglected with false promises and good governance.
“For the environment that has been destroyed by logging and mining, for those who yawn for good governance, for the people of this country who have deprived from their God given resources, for the public servants whom promised to provide shelter and home are nothing but empty words,” Manele said.
He stressed that Opposition has made a serious assessment on the political situation and have decided on what is best for the nation and not themselves.
Manele said the political instability which eventuated to the successful motion of no confidence was not caused by the opposition group but the government itself as there have been serious deficiencies in the processes demonstrating the government is not performing well.
“Motion of no confident is a fundamental mechanism provided under section 27, 28 and 29 in the standing orders to pave way for check and balance in our democratic system of government so that our people can understand what is going on in the government.
“It is an integral part of the type of democracy that we adopted when this country gains its independence.
“Without such a provisions in our laws, we will never a healthy democracy but instead tyranny,” Manele explained.
He told parliament that Opposition has provided constructive advices to the government for the past three years but the government and the Prime Minister failed to take on-board the views and advises.
He said Opposition are bound by a legislative mandate in providing oversight and scrutiny to allow the motion to take place.
Manele strongly emphasised that Opposition’s decision to support the Motion is nothing personal against the caretaker Prime Minister and ministers.
On the same note he said his group has been prepared and determined to remain in the opposition ‘come what may’ until the end of the 10th Parliament.
THE 6th Melanesian Arts Festival National Organising Committee vows not to repeat what happened after the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts, which was hosted by Solomon Islands in 2012.
The response was made when local media asked on outstanding claims still uttered by local contractors on their contributions to the development of infrastructure for the event.
Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Mr Andrew Nihopara, who is also the Chairman of MAFNOC, said this is one of the positive lessons they learnt from hosting FOPA in 2012.
Adding that to ensure the upcoming Melanesian festival is free from such issues, they are carefully working on necessary areas to avoid the issue.
Nihopara said the organising committee will look after the execution of plans for the festival.
“We want to streamline the level of bureaucracy of the committee, so that to avoid unnecessary decisions and ensure only responsible people within the committee to make decisions.
“We will execute all the capital expenditure projects will happen in preparation for the festival under the current government’s procurement.
“So, basically as the accountable officer, as PS for MCT and also chair to the committee, the whole process will follow what the procurement of Ministry of Finance and Treasury required.
“So things will go out in tender as the preparation for the festival looms,” he said.
Nihopara said that the 2012 FOPA happened before the Public Financial Management Act enacted.
“So it makes the procurement system at that time not subjected to the act, now we have the act in place which we will execute plan according to the requirement of the act.
“We are hoping that it will be a normal process of procurement that will help a lot.
“Again this is public money that we will be using so we will ensure all the use of the money to fall within the requirement of the Public Financial Management Act,” he said.
Nihopara pointed out that the importance of the forward plan is to properly plan the execution of the projects in appliance to the requirement.
“So we think we will manage it under the current requirement and of course to avoid any of the issues faced after FOPA in 2012 where lot of constructors remain unpaid.
“Because there were system put in place where approval to some of the things made down there without the consent of the PS.
“But for now the Public Financial Management Act is in place and will help us a lot in execution of the plans for the festive next year,” he said.
Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Culture and Tourism Andrew Nihopara
BY SAMIE WAIKORI
THE sixth Melanesian Arts Festival will be hosted using permanent facilities.
Mr Andrew Nihopara, permanent secretary for Ministry of culture and tourism and chairman to the festival’s organising committee, reveals this, adding that the 2012 Festival of Pacific Arts has taught them a lot of questions.
“There are lot of positive things came out from the particular event hosted and there were lot of lessons learned as well.
“Which we built infrastructure and the system that we would like to approach in hosting the 6th Melanesian Festival.
“The government’s commitment to host the event is looking at bigger events like the 2023 South pacific Game and other future events.
“That will help us test our capacity to host the event and at the same time create necessary capacity in terms of accommodation, activity and attraction where people can engage in long-term,” he said.
Nihopara said with the proposed budget they have for this event they are looking at a long-term approach – for this event and future ones.
“We want to invest in facilities that will be the host for the festival next year, but long-term they can also use for other activities.
“This is some of the long-term outcomes the committee is looking at for the event that will be hosted.
“And one of such is the Honiara Craft Market Centre project which will shortly be implemented,” he said.
Nihopara said the craft market is a facility they want to invest in as a craft market for Honiara and also earmark for the official festival village during the 6th Melanesian Festival.
He said having in place the facilities are very important as they also contribute a lot to the development of the tourism and cultural sectors in the country.
Live and Learn WASH team, Stakeholders and school managers possed for a group photo on Tuesday.
BY MAVIS NISHIMURA PODOKOLO
HONIARA City Council’s (HCC) education authority has come under attack, being blamed for failing to regularly check its schools.
This observed failure by the HCC education authority (EA) has led to the rise in sanitation, unhygienic environment and health problems in HCC owned schools.
This was revealed by the Principal Education Officer (PEO) for Honiara City Council Education Authority (HCCEA) Mr Henson Cornelius yesterday at the Live and Learn WASH team, stakeholders and school managers workshop in Honiara.
Cornelius said if regular inspections had been done, WASH issues (sanitation and health issues) would not be a problem.
“We have failed to check out schools quarterly and so WASH became an immense issue in regards to the health of our students, teachers and parents as well.
“However, this issues is not only for us (HCC) to consider but it needs students, school managers and other stakeholders put our hands together in carrying out improvements on WASH facilities and keep them operational as per national standard (clean and accessible with water for drinking, hand washing soap supplies available and proper toilets with wise use of it,” said Cornelius.
HCC is working on a programme called the Whole School Inspection (WSI) which is set up to address seven areas including sanitation.
OPPOSITION Leader Hon Jeremiah Manele believes keeping Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and the DCC Government in office would do more damage than good for the country.
Manele was giving justification why it is necessary for a change in Government with just over a year left before the next national general election.
He was speaking on the floor of Parliament on Monday during a successful motion of no confidence against the leadership of Sogavare.
“While we all understand that nothing much can be done in this short period of time, the most important aspect people have overlooked is if we allow things to continue as they are now, we allow more damage to be done in the 16 months that is left of this 10th Parliament,” Manele said.
“For example the economy is bleeding, we must stop the bleeding. So is it wise to take action now or sit back and allow more damage to be done in the remaining months under this leadership [of Sogavare],” he added.
Manele said the duty of performing roles as leaders to save this country is not bound by time.
“Even in a year a lot of good things can be done. What we need is a competent government that works together as a team, a government that has the political will and focus, a government that has the heart to lead and serve the people of this country.
“Our group has leaders that have the heart for this country and leaders who can take the economy and this country forward,” he said.
Manele also defended the Opposition group’s decision not to join the DCC Government and maintain political stability.
“For the last three years the Opposition group has provided constructive advices to the government, and played its oversight role as serving as a check and balance on the government.
“The government, including the Prime Minister has failed to take onboard these views and advices.
“We did not cross to join the government or what is left of the DDC Government at the first opportunity because we are mature leaders and we accessed the situation and decided on what is best for the nation and not what is best for ourselves,” he said.
The Opposition side with its seven MPs has joined forces with Independent MPs and those that have defected from the DCC Government to successfully remove Sogavare and are likely to form a new government in the coming days.
FORMER Minister of Mines and Energy Bradley Tovosia has described the ministry as ‘dead’ while denying allegations he has politically interfered with the proposed nickel mining project in Isabel Province.
Tovosia was accused of trying to influence and interfere with the Mines and Minerals Board decision to issue mining licences to at least three Asian nickel mining companies he allegedly had close ties with .
Tovosia, who is the MP for east Guadalcanal, while rebutting these allegations in Parliament on Monday also went on the offensive against officials at the Ministry of Mines.
“I’ve been the minister for mines for one and a half month. That ministry is dead, nothing is happening there.
“Public servants there are not doing any work, they are drinking during official hours.
“We have to say this so that people hear it; hear what is happening in this ministry,” Tovosia said.
The Parliamentary Opposition was also informed that Tovosia summoned officials from the ministry to quickly facilitate the paper works so that he can issue licences to the companies before he was reshuffled to another ministry last week.
Tovosia, however, insisted he respect the leaders and people of Isabel Province and it was always his intention to follow the right process in issuing licences during his short time at the ministry.
“I sent a team down to Isabel to talk with the landowners and resource owners to find out what they want.
“I have also called for meetings in Honiara including the Tripod meeting attended by the three MPs in Isabel and leaders in the province.
“I told these meetings that whatever the resolution they come up with I will make sure whoever is been granted the licence must consider what the people want.
“To give the mining licences to my friends as has been said no, that is not true,” he said.
It is understood that the position of the Nickel Mine Committee and the leaders of Isabel Province is to recognise the partnership with the Government and that granting of licences must be done with due diligence and through appropriate procedures.
