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LOGGERS WINNERS

Written by
Brian Lezutuni
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Forest minister quashes suspension order issued by Commissioner of Forest

BY JARED KOLI

MINISTER of Forest Dickson Mua has used his power under Section 39 (2) of the Forest Resources and Timber Utilisation Act to quash a suspension order issued by the Commissioner of Forest (COF) over serious allegation of breach of the country’s code of logging practice.

This is in relation to logging operations inside a customary land area (Veuru land) in west Guadalcanal where the licensee, Tsetsele Investment Company and contractor, King Solomon Limited are alleged to have breached the Solomon Islands Code of Logging Practice (SICOLP), particularly Key Standard 6 of the code.

It was alleged that the contractor was operating within Buffer by felling and removing logs from Veuru land. It was further alleged that a skidding track was created to skid logs across the fuel storage which was only 10 metres away from a river bank, and trees were felled five metres from the river bank.

This was done without prior written approval from the office of the COF.

Island Sun finds out that this matter was first brought to COF attention by the Land Advisory and Legal Support Unit (LALSU) within the Public Solicitor’s Office. This was after a complaint was raised to their office.

LALSU requested the COF to issue a suspension notice to the licensee based on the breaches violated, including logging operations carried out on the water sources in the area.

On March 15 this year the Commissioner responded to the request and issued a ‘show cause’ notice to Tsetsele Investment Company. The show-cause notice directed that a seven (7) days notice be served as to why Tsetsele licence should not be suspended for breaching Key Standard 6 by operating within the buffer on Veuru customary land.

“The fate of the licence shall be known after your response is received. Otherwise, we advise that you immediately withdraw all operation from the buffer zones further restrained from entering the buffer area,” stated the letter from the office of the COF.

On April 19, 2021 the COF suspended Tsetsele Investment Company’s felling licence A101578 for reason that it breached Key Standard 6 of SICOLP and Regulation 19(f) of the Forest and Resources and Timber Utilisation (Felling Licence) 2005.

By letter dated April 27, 2021, Tsetsele Investment Company, having aggrieved with the suspension order issued by the COF, made an appeal to the Minister strongly denying breaching Key Standard 6 of the SICOLP and Regulation 19(f) of the Forest and Resources and Timber Utulisation (Felling Licence) 2005.

Tsetsele Investment Company contended that the basis of them carrying out felling and extraction of trees within buffer zones was from the fact that the legal trustees of Tsetsele inclusive of landowners have given them consent and legal right to fell and extract the commercial trees along the buffers.

They further claimed that they had complied with the requirements by applying to harvest buffers zones through the Guadalcanal Provincial forest officer, however, the provincial forestry office had failed to respond to their request.

Tsetsele Investment Company is a private company registered under Solomon Islands Company House with registration number, 201516920.

The company has three directors, they are John Potino, Francis Tsatsia and Banoventure Ture.

According to Form B of the Forest Resources and Timber Utilisation (Felling Licence) regulations, the company’s felling licence applies to Vungati, Vaigoro, Alesa and Paratsitsi customary land in west Guadalcanal.

Mr Tsastia (also the current director of Biosecurity, MAL) and Mr Ture told Island Sun that they had appealed the COF’s suspension order based on the fact that land owners had applied to harvest trees along the buffer zone at the first place, 10 months prior to the issuance of the suspension order by COF. But their application had been misplaced by the COF office.

Furthermore, they contended that by the time the suspension order was issued, Tsetsele had already ceased operation, withdrawn from the area and rehabilitation work carried out on the buffer zones as confirmed by the field assessment report of October 12, 2020.

The Minister of Forest, Dickson Mua after meeting with the licensee and contractor, wrote to the Director of Tsestele Investment Company and used his power under Section 39 (2) of the Forest Resources and Timber Utilisation Act to quash the suspension order.

Below is the extract of the letter obtained by Island Sun.

“I have viewed the field assessment report produce by Guadalcanal Forest officers and I am satisfied that the remedial and rehabilitation work on the buffer zone areas has been satisfactorily carried out and that pollution of streams and rivers are less evident.

“I am also satisfied that the suspension order issued by the Respondent (COF) is untimely and should not have been issued on the basis that the felling and extraction of commercial trees within buffer zones have since ceased and the Appellant (Tsetsele) withdrawn from the area several months prior to the licence being suspended.

“With due respect to the Respondent, such delay action to the Appellant in my view, may be unfair and unjust on their behalf.

“Having pursued the appeal together with the documents submitted hereto, I am satisfied that the suspension order issued by Respondent to Appellant did not comply with the provisions of the Forests Resources and Timber Utilisation Act as there has been a remedial measure undertaken.

“It is my view that any such claim for compensation by the complainant party should be made through the Courts.

“Therefore, pursuant to my powers under Section 39(2) of the Forest Resources and Timber Utilization Act, I hereby quashed the suspension order issued by the Respondent of April 19, 2021 and accordingly, make the following orders;

  1. That the suspension order issued by the Respondent of 19th April 2021 is hereby quashed.
  • That the suspension order issued over felling licence A10415 is hereby lifted and reinstated accordingly.
  • That the Appellant refrain from further entering, felling and extracting commercial trees within buffer zones with immediate effect.
  • That the Appellant strictly observe the Solomon Islands Code of Logging Practices in your logging operations.

Section 39(2) of the Forest Resources and Timber Utilization Act states that:

“Any person who is aggrieved by the cancellation or suspension of his licence or permit under subsection (1) may within two months thereof appeal in writing to the Minister whose decision thereon shall be final.”

The letter was copied to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Forestry, the Commissioner of Forests, Chief Forester of Guadalcanal Province, Attorney General Chambers, Provincial Police Commander of Guadalcanal Province, President of Solomon Forest Association and Managing Director of King Solomon Development Company Ltd.

Ends…////////////

Bed shortage is ‘tip of iceberg’ to Health’s problems: McNeil

Written by
Mavis Podokolo
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PS Pauline McNeil

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO 

THE issue of bed shortage at the National Referral Hospital is more than the availability of the beds, says Pauline McNeil, permanent secretary to Ministry of Health and Medical Services.

McNeil revealed this yesterday during a press conference on the issue of bed shortage and overcrowding at the emergency department.

“The issue is more than the availability of the bed, its systematic, it’s functional, its management, it is corporate services, so, these are the issues that we are trying to address,” she said.

McNeil said, in systematic, they have late discharged, laboratory not coming on time to report on time so that it enables the clinicians and doctors to give the results to the patients to enable them to be discharged.

She said when they (clinicians and doctors) discharge the patients, they continue remaining at the NRH because of logistics issues – due to discharged patients not being able to return home quickly.

“So it’s a whole range of issue that we are faced with, so therefore I think the immediate measures is to put in place procedurals and protocols making the clinicians and the nurses to be accountable in times of timely reporting,” McNeil said.

She said there is a lot of a systematic issues that they have to address immediately and in the long term as per the NRH business case, the first phase is NRH improvement and the second phase is east and west HCC clinics.

“We are already having discussion with the ministry of Lands for securing Kukum vicinity in terms of the area around there and we are looking at Rove so that it can provide functional services, not only at health clinic but we also want to have diagnostic laboratory services and other services that can be offered in Kukum and Rove.

“So these are short term measures but right now we want to ensure that the system is functional for NRH so that the flow can be efficient.

“The team is working hard they have started the work putting in place the mechanism in terms of the bed management system task force and already they are finding issues in managing the beds seeing the bottlenecks and all that.

“So we try to address that immediately while going forward for the short to long term measures,” McNeil said.

Covid vaccination now open to all 18yrs+: PM

Written by
Press Release
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Honourable-Prime-Minister-receiving-his-first-vaccine-shot

PRIME Minister Manasseh Sogavare says the covid-19 vaccination programme is now open to all persons 18 years and above in Honiara, Guadalcanal, Western, Choiseul and Malaita Outer Islands.

The Prime Minister highlighted this during his nationwide address yesterday.

The Prime Minister said the Ministry of Health’s communication team will step up and intensify efforts to create awareness and other communication activities.

This will also help address ongoing concerns and anxiety amongst the public on covid-19 vaccines and encourage people to be vaccinated.

“I urge all businesses, civil society groups, churches and community leaders, popular social media groups, to unite in encouraging our people to get vaccinated and work with our health team to disseminate correct messages to members of the public,” he said.

Prime Minister Sogavare also thanked Our Telekom and B-Mobile for their continuous support to disseminate covid-19 vaccine key messages and for encouraging people to be vaccinated.

The Prime Minister urged all organisations, groups, and communities in Honiara and throughout the country to support the vaccines awareness teams.

“Together we can achieve a 100 percent coverage of all eligible adults in the country. If we achieve this, we can achieve herd immunity, which will protect those that cannot be vaccinated,” he said.

–OPMC PRESS

Waiting-space set up for discharged patients at NRH.

Written by
Mavis Podokolo
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BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

THE National Referral Hospital (NRH) has set aside two waiting space for discharged patients.

The idea of having a waiting lounge for discharged patients came up following the current issue of bed shortage and overcrowding at the emergency department (ED).

Dr George Malefoasi, chief executive officer for NRH, said having a space for discharged patients is one specific measure undertaken to address the matter of bed shortage and overcrowding at the ED.

“We have identified tow space to be transformed to waiting time for discharged patients and these are spaces next to old morgue and space next to dental space while waiting for their transports and family members to pick them up,” Malefoasi said.

He said these measures are to ensure when patients leave, they have proper discharge plans.

Malefoasi stressed that one of many ‘discharged’ protocols they are working on is by 10am all patients should be out from their beds and cleaning to take place soon after.

He said if the measures are up and running the NRH will not encounter the issue of bed shortage.

Finance Ministry in ‘cash flow problem’

Written by
Eddie Osifelo
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By EDDIE OSIFELO

MINISTRY of Finance and Treasury is facing a cash flow problem as it cuts down on its priority spending for the short term.

Treasury only has $63 million in Solomon Islands Government bank accounts and over $103 million in payments that have cleared compliance and budget checking and are ready for payment.

This was confirmed in a leaked email by Accountant General Bruce Phillips to all permanent secretaries and financial controllers last Friday (June 18).

Phillips said that “we have an immediate shortfall of $40 million and this amount is growing daily at present time.”

He said many of the $103 million are priority payments.

“Clearly something must be sacrificed in the very short term until our cash reserves are built up again,” he said.

As such in conjunction with PSF, Phillips said Treasury has agreed to priorities weekly SIG salaries, utility payments, Ministry of Rural Development related payments and provincial government grants until 30th June.

He said third quarter parliamentary allowances and housing rental payments are all due in nine business days.

Further to that, Phillips said naturally donor funded payments are not impacted nor are COVID related payments as these are funded separately from SIG.

Consequently, Phillips said he will not be approving further provincial touring imprests or payments that do not meet the above criteria until June 30, 2021 at the earliest.

“You can be assured that PSF, Ministry of Finance and Treasury and ourselves are doing everything possible to address this short-term funding challenge,” he added.

Underage rape case moved

Written by
Jennifer Kusapa
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BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

Case against the Bangladesh national accused of underage rape has been moved for June 25 for possible plea and variation of bail.

Principal Magistrate Felix Hollison adjourned the case yesterday when prosecution asked for time saying they were yet to sort out issues regarding the case.

Prosecution told court that they were waiting on the additional statements from investigators.

Prosecution explained  they require additional statements from the complainant to clearly verify the number of times the alleged offending occurred on the alleged victim.

Meanwhile, the defence lawyer told court they are going to make an application to vary some of the bail conditions as the accused will be travelling out for medical review.

Hollison then adjourned the case to this Friday and made directions for prosecution to follow up with the investigators regarding the outstanding statement and also for the counsel to prepare submissions for bail variation application.

This is in relation to the case of a Bangladesh national accused to have raped an 11-year-old girl at the Lungga area.

According to Police, the case was reported to the Henderson police station by the mother of the victim.

Police said the victim’s mother called in at Henderson Police Station and reported that her daughter was raped by a Bangladesh national in his bedroom.

The mother said she only knew of the incident when she heard stories from other girls about what happened to her, it was at that time that she asked her daughter and confirmed the sexual action committed on her about a week ago but she was afraid to tell anyone about it.

One Link and Dora case moved, June 29

Written by
Jennifer Kusapa
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BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

The case against the owner of the One Link Pacifica money scheme has been moved to June 29.

Principal Magistrate Felix Hollison adjourned the matter yesterday after prosecution said they were yet to give the defence two outstanding statements.

Prosecution said the file had just been given to them by investigators, along with two additional statements, but one statement is yet to be typed by the investigator and verified with the witness.

Prosecution said that investigators need a day or two to complete the statement before the statement can be ready before providing it to prosecution.

Prosecution said once those outstanding statements are ready full disclosures will be served to the defence.

Meanwhile, a lawyer from the Public Solicitors office said that no instruction was obtained from the lawyer in carriage of the matter, who is currently on leave.

Therefore, the solicitor sought an adjournment on the case for a later date.

This is the case of Mr Charles Dora who is facing two charges under the financial institution act 1998.

Prosecution said on July 4, 2019, One-link Pacifica was formally registered at the company Haus under the name of Mr Charles Dora as Director.

There is a business certificate in file as it appears, Mr Charles Dora is a Director of OLP, registered under business name one link Pacifica Business number 20191217 issued by Company Haus.

Dora is the proprietor and sole trader of the OLP, he is also a manager for online mentors.

One link Pacifica scheme was described as sharing resource; however, it is a Ponzi scheme, the essence of the scheme is that investors give money towards the company, on promise there will be higher return after 30 days of investment, the creator of the scheme then used recruiting agents (mentors) for people to come along and invest their money through them.

The monies were from people who have invested their money into One link Pacifica, the company owned by the accused.

Prosecution also said that between the period of December 2019 to March 2020, investors did not receive their money as promised. Within the period, CBSI warned public members about the operation of the schemed, that Dora did not apply for a licence under the FIA to engage in the business of banking in Solomon Islands.

On March 4, 2020 CBSI wrote to Dora as Director of One-Link to make available to CBSI record, books or accounts relating to the business for examination within seven working days pursuant to section 3(3) of the FIA. However, Dora did not provide detail documents or failed to comply such their bank account details, receipt books and accounts books.

Later on, March 27, 2020, CBSI informed Police that One-link Pacifica seem to be operating as a banking business, and does not comply with the Financial Institution Act.

Prosecution then alleged that Dora knowing his co-accused was arrested on April 4, 2020, went and hid at Russel Islands, Central Islands Province up until his arrest on June 1, 2021.

Ontong Java face border crossers with no PPE

Written by
Samie Waikori
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Vaccination roll-out program at Luaniua in Ontong java last year.....Photo supplied

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AUKI

People in Ontong Java, Malaita Outer Islands, are facing covid-19 risk head-on, and are calling on the national government to assist them.

Border crossers of the SI-PNG border arrive at the islands unchecked.

And, the local covid-19 committees of the Luaniua and Pelau have had to face them with no personal protective equipment (PPE).

Senior Administration Officer for MOI region under MPG, Mr Manford Kelaho said about five different boats had arrived at Luaniua through the SI-PNG border and were dealt with by the covid-19 committee in Luaniua.

Kelaho said most of these boats were alleged to have come from the nearby Tasman Islands, one was a foreign sailing boat.

He said their illegal entry and opening door for potential intrusion of covid-19 to their communities and country is a huge concern.

“Like, for the situations encountered, members of Luaniua covid-19 committee had taken the situations out of covid-19 protocol due to non availability of covid-19 equipment on the ground.

“One of the cases the committee found difficult to deal was those onboard of the sailing boat as they tried to communicate with them on the campaign, but they didn’t until the boat left after a week on the island.

“The possibility for illegal entry especially through Luaniua route via SI/PNG at MOI is prevalent as police border security only focus at Pelau route through the border,” Kelaho said.

On that note, he calls on responsible authorities to step up border security at MOI and equip both Luaniua and Pelau covid-19 committees with safety covid-19 gears.

Kelaho said the committees were established under directives from responsible government agencies.

$1.4m for Taro & Seghe airports

Written by
Press Release
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The signatories to the arrangement sitting in front (from left) Minister for Communication and Aviation Hon. Peter Shanel Agovaka, New Zealand High Commissioner Georgina Roberts and Minister of Finance and Treasury Hon. Harry Kuma. Officials who witnessed the signing ceremony standing (from left) Joe McCarter NZHC, Moses Virivolomo PS MCA, Jimmy Nuake DS MID, McKinnie Dentana PS MoFT, Susan Sulu PS MNPDC, Australian High Commissioner Dr. Lachlan Strahan and Zubin D’Sousa NZHC.

A funding arrangement of SBD1.4 million to support provincial airfield upgrades at Seghe and Taro was signed on Monday at the New Zealand High Commission in Honiara between New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), the Ministry of Communication and Aviation, and the Ministry of Finance and Treasury.

The agreement will enable major upgrades to provincial airports in Seghe and Taro, which will improve connectivity across Solomon Islands and increase economic development opportunities in Western Province and Choiseul. The arrangement signed on Monday will assist Solomon Islands Government officers, working with New Zealand as lead donor, to support the airfield upgrades, carry out monitoring, engage and consult with communities, and ensure social and environmental safeguards are in place.

The upgrades are currently estimated to cost around SBD240M, and include sealing and lengthening Seghe and Taro runways to make them all-weather and capable of landing the Dash-8 aircraft. The upgrades will be co-funded by New Zealand, Solomon Islands, and Australia.

High Commissioner Georgina Roberts noted the importance of partnership in delivering this critical infrastructure to benefit Solomon Islands communities.

“In taking on this large investment we seek to practice kotahitanga to draw strength from our diversity and acknowledge that all of us have a unique but complementary part to play to ensure successful delivery of these airfields.

“The arrangement signed today articulates and confirms Solomon Islands Government’s commitment to this project in partnership with New Zealand and Australia.”

Minister of Communication and Aviation Peter Shanel Agovaka acknowledged the hard work over the last few years from all parties to improve connectivity in Solomon Islands.

“Our domestic partners, the Western Provincial Government, Choiseul Provincial Government, respective landowners, and the travelling public are looking forward to the implementation and completion of the projects,” he said.

“The national government and relevant ministries remain committed to ensuring this priority infrastructure project is completed.”

–NZHC PRESS

Pelau gets FAD from Malaita government

Written by
Samie Waikori
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0
FAD deployment at Pelau last week.

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

AUKI

PEOPLE of Pelau in ward 32 of Malaita Outer Islands are recipients under the Malaita government’s FAD programme.

Fishing aggregating device (FAD) are new inventions used to promote sustainable fishing, and Malaita province is utilising FAD across its communities.

Malaita government (MPG) this year has budgeted for six FAD, six to be installed at the mainland and one in its outliers, specifically Pelau, Ontong Java.

Speaking to this paper yesterday, Senior Administration Officer for MOI region under MPG, Mr Manford Kelaho said a team from MPG visiting Lord Howe communities last week installed the FAD at Pelau.

He said the people of Pelau are delighted to receive the FAD and thank MPG for the support.

Kelaho said this is the first of such fisheries project to reach Pelau and will be a lift to their habitual inshore fishing activities to off-shore activity.

Auki senior fishery officer, Mr Matthew Isihanua (right) assisted by villagers at Pelau in the FAD preparation.

The aim of FAD is to discourage fishing at inshore fishing grounds to avoid over harvesting and encourage offshore fishing.

Meanwhile, Kelaho said there are more such fisheries projects planned for Malaita outer islands.

He said the proposal is for two FADs and a fisheries centre for Luaniua. “Work is on the proposal and as it eventuates, it will be established.”

Kelaho said MPG is working tirelessly to ensure services is distributed equally to its people and part of it is now reaching the three wards in MOI.

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