Leader of Opposition Matthew Wale has called on the Commissioner of Forests to suspend Xian Ling Timber (SI) Ltd’s logging licence for the damage the company is causing to the Lata airstrip runway; and to direct the company to repair the damage immediately.
The Opposition Leader’s call follows a recent report that the company’s ongoing use of the runway as a logging road is destroying the condition of the runway making it unsafe for planes to land.
“This is just not on and I am surprised that no action has been taken earlier to stop this reckless attitude resulting in Solomon Airlines raising safety concerns over the company’s activities.
“It is mandatory under our laws for logging companies to build their own operation related roads and to respect public and private property.
“This is clearly not the case here and this does not reflect well on the responsible authorities,” says Mr Wale.
Lata Airport provides a vital link between Temotu province and the rest of the country, and this link is vital for medical and economic reasons amongst others and so any activities interfering with these important needs should not be tolerated and must be dealt with severely.
“I therefore call on the Commissioner of Forests to quickly suspend this company’s operations, to call on it to rectify the damage done and to ensure that it does not use the runaway again,” he adds.
A 23-year-old man has been arrested over the death of another man who reportedly stole a mobile phone belonging to the arrestee.
A police statement yesterday said the 23-year-old gave himself up to police following discussions with them.
He was formally arrested at his home and charged on June 18. He is being remanded awaiting court.
Police say he is being charged with murder ‘contrary to section 200 of the penal code. The suspect has remanded at the Rove Correctional Centre on June 19, 2021. He will appear before the Honiara Central Magistrates Court on 2 July 2021’.
The suspect was arrested in relation to an incident which occurred on the morning of June 12, behind the Kwaimani building, Kukum area.
Information gathered by police said an argument broke out over a mobile phone that was taken from the now murder-suspect and the deceased’s group at Kukum area.
The deceased was among five others who stole a mobile phone from the suspect and his cousin brother. It was during that time a fight broke out between them.
Police said: “The deceased and his group attacked the suspect and fell on the ground since he was out numbered.
“The suspect stood up and continued to fight the deceased and his group. It was alleged at that time the suspect punched the deceased head, and he fell on the road unconsciously. The suspect escaped while the deceased group chased him.
“The deceased later assisted by his friends back to Bua valley area after the incident, and they left him at a market stall with injuries at the back of his head.
“The deceased friends asked him to eat and go to the hospital for a medical treatment, but he refused.
“About 1pm on 14 June 2021, the deceased was rushed to the National Referral Hospital and was pronounced death.”
The Commissioner for Oaths in Makira Ulawa Province, Jack Faga has reminded people who have been performing Chiefs’ roles and functions in three Wards of Central Makira Constituency without being sworn in on oath that they could be abusing and misusing chiefly authority.
Mr Faga said in a public notice displayed on Notice Boards in Kira Kira, the Provincial Capital on June 7, 2021 that there are people in the three wards who have been performing and exercising roles and functions of Chiefs without being sworn in on oath.
He said such people could be abusing and misusing Chiefly Authority when they indulged in “Un-chiefly” conducts and compromising one’s performances in conflicts of interest situations.
Faga sounded out the warnings as the Commissioner for Oaths for Solomon Islands who commissioned the Swearing-In of a huge number of Chiefs in “our Province on August 2007 under the 2006 Makira Ulawa Province Council of Chiefs Ordinance.
“I wish to sound out these warnings as a matter of awareness in a very clear and precise manner to persons performing and exercising roles and functions as Chiefs in Wards 9, 10 and 11 in Central Makra Constituency”.
He reminds people who engage themselves in Customary Land Disputes Settlement Hearings who have not been sworn in and commissioned either by him or any other Commissioner for Oaths lack the legal capacity and authority to perform and carry out such roles and functions.
And any involvement of such persons in Customary Land Dispute Settlement hearings automatically renders the entire hearing process including the judgment itself and orders to be void.
But Faga says Chiefs who have taken the Oath and have been commissioned must be mindful and cautious of how they use their authority in performing and exercising their roles and functions, because any act or omission that constitutes an abuse or misuse of chiefly authority is a serious matter that could result in:
a) The nullification of their work; b) tarnishing their credibility and integrity and c) destroying the trust and confidence the public has of them.
He also wants Chiefs that have been sworn in and commissioned to be always conscious of their conducts in the public and private domains because any behavior and conduct that brings disrepute, mockery and contempt to their chiefly status and esteem and respect accorded to them by society is a valid and compelling ground for revoking the Oath and removing the Authority bestowed on them.
Faga also wants chiefs who have been sworn in and commissioned must at all times avoid and refrain themselves from situations where the performance of their roles is compromised because of personal interests.
He adds occurrences of such situations not only subject their work to public ridicule and criticisms but leaves very poor moral judgment on their neutrality and impartiality which can often lead to disrespectful attitude towards them by members of the public.
“I, therefore strongly urge people who are currently performing and exercising roles and functions as Chiefs in the three Wards of Central Makira Constituency to take heed of the warnings and to comply accordingly,” says Faga.
In his closing remarks, he says the awareness is not intended to pass judgment or condemnation on anyone in particular, rather it is purposely aimed at helping Chiefs to undertake personal reflections and self-examinations of their conducts and the manner in which they have been discharging their responsibilities over the years, so as to enable them to cause necessary adjustments in order to keep and maintain public trust and confidence on them.
THE Commodities Export Marketing Authority’s Revitalisation and Recapitalisation Strategy 2021-2027 says it wants a piece of land in Kira Kira, the Provincial Capital, to build its Buying Centre.
The Director of CEMA Cabinet Sub-Committee of the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Housanau relayed the request to the Makira Ulawa Premier, Julian Maka’a and his Executive Ministers at a meeting he had with them in Kira Kira June 16, 2021.
He also relayed the same appeal to the Heads of Department of the Makira Ulawa Provincial Government when he met them after meeting with Premier Maka’a and his Executive.
Mr Housanau who led a CEMA Technical Working Team to Kira Kira said CEMA under the Revitalisation and Recapitalisation Strategy Programme, would want to build the Buying Centre in Kira Kira because the landowners of the land it had its old Buying Centre at Kaonasugu in West Bauro of Central Makira, have been disputing over it.
He said CEMA would not build Buying Centres on disputed sites. CEMA built the Kaonasugu Copra Buying Centre in the 80s, but stopped buying copra from producers when the National Parliament amended the CEMA Act to become a regulatory body.
Housanau said the amendment had impacted badly on both rural village and national economies as copra production thus copra export had halted.
But Housanau told the meeting that under the new programme, CEMA would build a new Buying Centre on a piece of land with more space as it would not buy only copra as had been the case in the past, but would also buy other agriculture products like cocoa, chilies, gingers, root crops like taro, yam and pana and of course, Makira people’s famous food, banana.
And in the long run, he said, CEMA would operate the Buying Centre under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) joint venture agreement with the Makira Ulawa Provincial Government.
Housanau said under such agreement, the Buying Centre would build a factory which would buy coconut oil products produced by coconut crushing mills around the Province for downstream processing to add value to the products and for export.
Meanwhile, Premier Maka’a welcomed the new approach by CEMA, because Makira Ulawa Province as an agriculture potential province, it would enable its resource owners and landowners to return to farming.
He agreed many coconut plantation owners had stopped producing copra and as a result their income earnings and livelihoods had been greatly affected.
But Provincial Finance Minister and MPA for Arosi Ward 8, Douglas Kuper while speaking on the land issue for the Buying Centre said if Kira Kira could not provide the site, the Provincial Government could consider moving the Buying Centre to Arosi in West Makira.
And Provincial Lands Minister, Jimmy Riunga said a site to build the Buying Centre in Kira Kira could be identified.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Government Land Reform Commission who was a member of the touring team of the CEMA Cabinet Sub-Committee of the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Andrew Manepora’a said the land for the Buying Centre must be secured because if there is no land, then there will be no development.
While in Makira, the team members also visited the Pakera Development Centre and Kokana Village along the West Makira Road.
A total of 21,742 doses of covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the country as of Friday last week.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare announced in his nationwide address yesterday that of that total;
16,437 doses are AstraZeneca Vaccines, [14,364 first doses and 2,073 second doses], and
5,305 doses are Sinopharm [3,686 first doses and 1,619 second doses]
“Based on these figures, a total of 3,692 people have now been fully vaccinated against covid-19 from the two vaccines used in the country,” he said.
The Prime Minister also reaffirmed that so far, only one case of anaphylaxis and three reactions were experienced due to the AstraZeneca vaccine; all of which had been treated with good outcome.
Meanwhile, he said as part of the plan to increase the country’s vaccination coverage, the health team have expanded the vaccination platform to provide covid-19 vaccination using mobile outreach vaccination centres to augment the fixed vaccination centres.
PICTURES of patients lying helplessly on the floor of the National Referral Hospital (NRH) in Honiara have gone viral on social media.
The scene was not only sad, but also provocative.
NRH is the nation’s top hospital. It’s where all the provinces referred medical cases that they could not dealt with.
It should be our priority. It should have the best of facilities and be able to cater for our health needs.
What appeared in those photos does not reflect well on the NRH as our top health facility.
The photos instead conveyed a failing health service and a facility that was not able to cope with the needs of its population.
They also portrayed a health facility that is overcrowded and neglected.
Patients are lying and treated on the hospital floor due to lack of beds.
This brings us to the question: is health still our priority?
If so, where is the new hospital that the Government has been talking about in the last 10 years?
And why are provincial hospitals ill-equipped to deal with cases that should have been dealt with at that level?
Here’s the thing.
The NRH is still in the same state 20 years ago while our population continues to increase?
So you expect more and more people to visit the same hospital with almost the same facilities that was built some 20 years ago.
It is not surprising then that the NRH has run out of space and beds. This is not rocket science. It is common sense.
Sadly, our elected leaders failed to see this.
They keep on talking about building a new hospital, while they terribly failed to allocate the necessary funding.
Don’t tell the people of this nation we don’t have the funds. Millions of our development funds are being allocated to MPs each with little or no tangible results.
Those millions of dollars could best be used to build another hospital, with more space and beds.
Those millions of dollars could also be best used to improve and upgrade our provincial hospitals to lessen the number of referrals to Honiara.
Our leaders failed to do what they are supposed to do. Now the problem is catching up on us and getting out of control.
The NRH is in a crisis situation. It can no longer cater for our increasing population.
Strangely enough, the silence coming from the Government and responsible health authorities has been deafening.
Why there’s so much silence over a crisis situation? may we ask.
Solomon Islanders need assurance, not the kind of silence we are hearing loudly from the Government at this time.
IT’S not often that public servants get acknowledged for services they provide every day for the benefit of Solomon Islanders.
They work under stressful conditions, often struggling with equipment that don’t work.
And, they get paid peanuts. Yet they are the first to be criticised for a slip in service delivery, just because the phone didn’t work or it was so hot to do any work.
Anyway, if it’s worth anything, I wish to share this experience I had with an IRD officer and an FID officer.
On Thursday 17th June, 2021 I was sent an email by the Ministry of Commerce asking me to complete the vendor form and revert to them.
Because I had another preoccupation to attend to I didn’t see the email until later in the evening.
I opened the email, completed the vendor form and send it back to the officer who had emailed me.
In the email I said I had completed a similar form previously so I thought my TIN number would be at the Treasury Division.
Next day which was Friday 18th June, sensing that something was not quite right I opened my email and there was a reply to my email.
The officer had insisted that their accounts has to have a copy of the TIN letter to be attached to the requisition for payment of my fees which they were sending down to MOFT.
That definitely was a problem for me as I had misplaced my copy of the TIN letter.
Anyway knowing exactly where I can get a replacement I rushed down to the IRD not bothering to check the time.
At the gate I was told its lunch time but the officers sometimes work during lunch so I can go in and tried my luck.
I went in and sure enough the officers had left for lunch. Counter 4 was the right counter to get assistance from.
Seeing it empty I gave an audible sigh of disappointment and sat down to take a rest on the benches provided.
As I was resting, the person who had been served at Counter 3 (manned by another IRD Officer) walked by clearly satisfied at the service he received.
I looked at the good lady officer as she was setting off for lunch.
She looked back at me and respectfully asked, can I help you?
I nodded hopefully, she waved me over and I quickly beckoned across to Counter 3.
“Sorry wantok”, “I need a TIN letter but I see you are heading off for lunch.” I said.
“Oh”, she said “woman na hem save but hem go for lunch na”.
“Write come name blo U” she asked.
I reached for a slip of cut paper left there at the counter for that purpose and wrote out my name.
She took the paper, typed on her computer and she read something from her screen.
“Yea that one” I said. I heard her printer humming and discerned she was printing. The next minute she handed me the very letter I was after.
I took it happily, and thanked her graciously. As I was heading back to my vehicle I couldn’t help appreciate the wonderful attendance I just witnessed.
A great change in customer service and a commitment to service delivery! I looked up to the skies and silently said “Thank you Lord”. I know these were small steps in what could be a broad domino effect that can improve service delivery in the public service.
I got into my car and drove off to the FID, the agent that needed the letter.
I went to the FID office and looked in at the counter.
I saw the officer I wanted to see was not there so I turned to go back when at the corner of my eyes I saw another officer approaching the counter.
He opened the window and confirmed to me that Sially had gone to do an errand at the school where her kids attended.
He saw I had papers with me and asked if he can help. I told him what I wanted and he took the papers.
He tried to photocopy something for me but their machine didn’t work. He asked me to wait as he hurried to another room.
He returned with the photocopy and apologized. I thanked him and left really touched that I had been served during lunch time.
This was a huge turn around.
Before, lunchtime is lunch time, no work and one had to come back at 1pm, sometimes much later.
This is really different, I was smiling as I left.
Whoever is helping to change customer service delivery in both offices has my full support and best wishes.
63 year-old Harrison Bita slurp up noodle as his cat lazily looks on. Villagers also depend on goods from shops when bad weather persists during 'time hungry'
BY JARED KOLI
ON a steep slope overlooking the treacherous Solomon seas, a lone figure sits under a tree staring into the distance, the shade from a nearby tree offers a cool respite from Harrison Bita’s struggle for survival with the land.
The 63-year-old’s community at Mandakacho, on the weather-coast of Guadalcanal is an area renowned for unpredictable weather and physically challenging landscape. Sandwiched between the rolling hills that fall into the ‘tasimauri’ or living ocean as it’s known in the local dialect.
For Chief Bita and his people, the only place they set their gardens is on the steep slope and narrow flat land along the coast. From June to August, the weather in these parts can be harsh with months of continuous rain making food production an arduous task.
Dark Cumulonimbus clouds hovering above the mountains of the Guadalcanal Weather Coast. The weather here is unpredictable. Photo. JARED KOLI
Changes in weather and climate patterns exacerbated by climate change has turned the land against the very people it is supposed to serve, and destroys their food crops, year after year.
The Weather Coast is not for the faint hearted – compounded with mountainous, rugged terrain, steep coastal mountain slopes, irregular shipping services and is expensive outboard motor transport.
“From March to July it is always raining and it’s often the time of the year we experience low crop, in some instances, whatever crops we grow will not go to harvest,” said Celestine Aloatu, coordinator of the now defunct Talise Community Base Training Centre.
Celestine Aloatu once involved in bulking and banking planting materials for farmers in Talise after realising the need.
Aloatu said the rainy season in south Guadalcanal can be so extreme, sometimes it takes up to six months of continuous rain. However, this year, they experienced a change.
“In the beginning of the year we tend to expect big swells, but it didn’t happen, the sea is fine right from the beginning of the year. So you see, it slightly changes, this time last year, we experienced very high seas and heavy rain. It is becoming unbelievable,” he said.
Chief Bita said people refer to this period as “time-hungry” with yam and cassava no longer available in most villages due to pests and diseases.
Sweet potatoes leaves turned yellow with tiny little holes are common during and after bad weather
“Heavy rain brought flooding, made worse by strong winds and rough seas and people are normally forced to remain in their houses. It destroys root crops and vegetables grown near river banks,” said Mr Bita.
Sixty-three year old Harrison Bita points to where huge waves normally reach during rougn seas eroding coconuts and coastal trees
When this happens, villagers depend on breadfruit, banana, dry coconuts and wild yams to survive, as well as goods from shops, which usually run out of stock if bad weather persists.
“Breadfruit is the main food we often rely on during times of disaster, and also wild yam, locally known as ‘uvi matua’,” Bita adds.
Ara and Koburu
The two main climate systems affecting the Solomon Islands are the south easterly trade winds (Ara) that blow from May through to October and the north westerly monsoon winds (Koburu) that blow from December until March.
During Koburu, winds and abundant rainfall can be expected – a period where tropical cyclones form while Ara triggers higher rainfall.
The weather coast region of south Guadalcanal receives heavy rainfall of 5,000mm to 8,000mm annually during two wet seasons, the first from January to April, the second from May to September.
Rain about to drop in Viso area, south Guadalcanal. This is an usual sight in this part of Guadalcanal as weather may change anytime during the day
Maria Bola, a farmer and church leader at Ngalitaverona Village knows what too much rain means for crops.
“It usually leads to sweet potato leaves having small holes. Cassava only bare vines. Bananas also dwarfed and failed to yield good fruit — they were usually smaller than their usual size.
“Almost every crop is affected during the rainy season, sometimes the heavy rain can also cause landslides,” Maria said.
White Fungus disease that affect cassava stem is one of the diseases people discovered after months of heavy rain. Photo by JARED KOLI
Mr Aloatu said the intense saturation of the soil and made sweet potatoes and cassava fail to tuberise in waterlogged soils.
“We experienced a decline in the fertility of soil where we cultivated our root crops. We usually did our farming on sloped areas, and every year heavy rainfall erodes nutrients away from the top soil.
“Gardens on flat lands were waterlogged, enabling a new environment which harbours thriving plant pests and diseases that affect our staple root crops like cassava, sweet potatoes and taro,” said Aloatu, who has been involved in food bulking for many years until recently.
A rural-based training center he ran until recently offered life skills training such as carpentry and joinery to students as well as farming.
“There are no big trees left on where we make food gardens because year after year we use the same land, this makes it even more vulnerable to erosion, and so when it rains topsoil gets washed away to the sea, carrying with it organic matter and soil nutrients.
Coastal erosion was evident in south Guadalcanal.
“I think that is also one of the factors that contribute to the problem of poor crop yields we experience here,” said a villager, Elson Francis.
Rains, floods and disaster
“The flooding occurred last year from May, June, July and August, four solid months of rain, and one of the worst I’ve seen,” said Francis.
“This is just a small stream but when it rains, floods can be very destructive and often destroy food gardens,” he said.
A villager, Elson Francis walks up a dried up stream. After months of heavy rain last year, part of the village on his left was swept away, forcing families to relocate further up to higher ground
Further up the stream floods also uprooted and carried away two homes.
Part of this village was swept away, one of the houses standing there was washed away by the floods, forcing families to move to higher grounds.
He said only an elderly woman remained in the village whose house was spared during the flood.
Climate Change
The Director of the Solomon Islands Meteorological Service David Hiriasia said while global temperature fluctuates on a daily basis, the long term average is a temprature increase which is consistent with global warming and the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Mr Hiriasia said the country needs the data to back-up what the elders in rural communities have witnessed, and SIMS has recently installed observation weather stations in Marau, east Guadalcanal, Avuavu and Biti in south Guadalcanal and one at Kohimarama.
SIMS is working with communities to revisit traditional knowledge on weather and climate and develop a crop calendar.
Coconuts being eroded by high coastal waves at Talise beach, south Guadalcanal,
“One of the communities on the weather coast of Guadalcanal we work with is within the Moro movement area.
“We develop some crop calendar to promote local crop production such as yam. We would like to expand this, but it also depends on funding, when we collect these traditional knowledge, we can also see these changes,” Hiriasia said.
He said SIMS is collaborating with different stakeholders such as women groups, agriculture agencies, farmers to give them forecasts so that they can plan ahead and choose what crop would be suitable for a period in the weather forecast.
But hundreds of kilometers away on the Weather Coast Chief Bita continues to wonder what climate change will hold for his people and what the future will bring.
This feature story is produced with support from the ABC International Development Media reporting on climate change story grant 2021
The ministry of fisheries (MFMR) is warning of a collapse in the local beche-de-mer industry if illegal harvesting continues unabated.
MFMR Director Eddie Honiwala said beche-de-mer stocks are down and may not recover if the illegal activities continue.
Honiwala echoed this yesterday as the ministry destroyed confiscated illegally harvested beche-de-mer.
“It is important for our people to note that our beche-de-mer stocks are fished down and if this continues, this fishery will collapse soon. We don’t want to drive this important fishery down that path,” he said.
Honiwala said the current ban to harvesting is to give the beche-de-mer stocks time to recover.
“With the current level of over-fishing and low density around the country, the closure period should be longer than five years.
“Continuous illegal harvesting will not do any good to the BDM stocks, or to our communities but will drive this important fishery to a level where, we will no longer have the beche-de-mer fishery in the future and our future generations will no longer have any beche-de-mer fishery to enjoy as today,” he said.
He said in the previous data recorded it showed that majority of the confiscated beche-de-mer products were of low value species.
“This is an indication that high value species were no longer found in many places, so people have no option but to fish low value species.”
Beche-de-mer fishery was closed in 2019 under the prohibition order made under section 22 of the Fisheries Management Act 2015.
Under the prohibition order, fishing or possession of any species of beche-de-mer from fisheries waters is prohibited, effective from May 31, 2019. Further to the above, export of any species of beche-de-mer is prohibited effective from June 30, 2019.
The Lofung Border and Patrol Boat Outpost site plan in the Shortland Islands
BY JARED KOLI
With a few days to go for Ground-breaking ceremony, the proposed multi-million dollar border patrol boat base project is staring up a brick wall.
Accusations, court threats and warnings are mounting against FAMOA Trust Board over Lofung land (on which sits the site earmarked for the new patrol boat base).
FAMOA trust board is the body which the national government is liaising with over the project. FAMOA is supposedly the representative of all the landowners.
But, some landowning tribes are saying this is not so, and are warning government against dealing and making arrangements with FAMOA and its working committee.
The Saraba Clan/Group, which claims land rights on Lofung land, said the government’s arrangement with FAMOA “will be a disgrace, irresponsible and loss on part of the Government if the case that will be filed in the High Court be ruled not in favour of FAMOA Trust Board”.
“As with the Kome Clan/Group, we will also be filing a case in the High Court soon or amidst the period of the ground-breaking and when the work starts at the site,” Mr Brenden Maena says in a statement on behalf of Saraba Clan.
Mr Maena claims that the FAMOA Trust Board’s registration as a charitable trustee and the transfer of the registered land at Lofung in 2003 obtained by FAMOA Trust Board were done by unscrupulous means.
“Further we will be filing a case to the court claiming that land or site below the high-water mark at Lofung, Shortland Islands as customary land and owned by Saraba and Kome Clans.
“Lastly, the Australian Government is cautioned of releasing the fund and for spending their taxpayers’ money on the project at Lofung where the land or site is still in dispute and that would cause disharmony of peace among the people of Shortland Islands,” he warns.
Earlier this week, Alisae Laore of another landowning group also threatened to challenge the FAMOA Trust Board in court for selling the 20 hectares at Lofung.
Laore said FAMOA Trust constitution states it has no right to sell or lease land to the government.
He said even the constitution of FAMOA Council of Chiefs allows provision in Part 4 and Part 6 to identify true landowners and return the land back to them.
“Why did the FAMOA Trust Board ignore its own constitution?” he asked.
As such, Laore said he will challenge the Board in court for allegation of fraud.
Furthermore, Laore said the Board’s move to sell the land to the government defies its policy to return all alienated land to the original landowners.
Laore provided a deed of sale agreement signed by his grandfather in 1900s that they are the true owners of the land.
He said a chief’s decision of FAMOA Council of Chiefs was reached in 1988 which decided that they have the ownership right over that land.
Local businessmanand surviving founding father of FAMOA Trust George Taylorhas also called on the Commissioner of Lands to revoke the Perpetual Estate (PE) title held by FAMOA Trust Board.
Taylor said the PE title held by FAMOA for the past 20 years for whatever reason was illegal.
“If FAMOA has fixed term estate (FTE) then it is 100 correct they own the land. The PE title was held illegally by FAMOA. The government must revoke the PE title.
“We are very happy with the project, it is a national project, but we are not happy with what the Government is doing with FAMOA Trust Board and its working committee.
“Government knows very well that this is wrong, but why entertained FAMOA,” he said.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Police and Correctional Services, Karen Galokale earlier told Island Sun the current subject land is registered under FAMOA as legal Perpetual Estate holder and not a customary land.
But Taylor said the comments made by the PS were wrong and totally ignorant of this matter.
“You cannot talk from that chair to say FAMOA holds the PE title, you cannot process anything that is wrong, because the PE title with FAMOA is wrong.
“The Government have all the right with the project,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the FAMOA Working Committee, Pellion Buare earlier said FAMOA still stands by its commitment to meet with the concerned parties after finalising all the arrangements with the national government.
He maintained that FAMOA is the registered owner of Lofung land, which is the site for the project.
Meanwhile, Ground-breaking for the new outpost at Lofung has been set for June 23, 3021.
Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Australia High Commissioner are expected to attend the historic groundbreaking ceremony.
The Australian Government is funding the multimillion-dollar Border and Patrol Boat Outpost project, which Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare jointly announced in Honiara on October 7, 2019.
