BY BEN BILUA
Gizo
FORMER Western Province leader and member of the Eminent Persons Advisory Council on the Federal Constitution (CC-EPAC), Thornley Hite, says the ambition to establish a federal system in Solomon Islands is a national shared responsibility and not a devolved provincial function.
He said the pathway to harmonising federal system ambitions is clearly outlined in the Draft Federal Constitution of Solomon Islands (DFCSI), which was presented to the then government in July 2019.
Hite said the transition from the current unitary governance system to a federal system could be fast-tracked if the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (OPMC) established resourced focal points in the provinces.
“What needs to be done, perhaps, is for each province to set up transitional offices under provincial government-approved budgets, with funding channelled through OPMC via the Constitutional Reform Unit or a Federal Transitional Unit under OPMC,” he said.
Hite said the transitional unit offices in each province should be administered by qualified lawyers and administrative staff, with a clear mandate to pave the way for a peaceful transition from unitary governance to a federation of states under a home-grown federal model.
He said such undertaking is paramount so that ambition towards the federal system remain active.
“It is disappointing to see more than a hundred million dollars spent in coining the desired home-grown federal system without any success,” Hite said.
He said that the time has come for Solomon Islands to embrace cooperative federalism based on self-rule and shared powers.
“It’s time to share the burden of governance through cooperative federalism of self-rule and shared powers,” Hite said.
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