BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE
THE Paramount Chief of North Guadalcanal’s Thimbo tribe, Mr Benedict Garimane is calling on the former Member of Parliament for North Guadalcanal constituency, Mr Martin Sopage to explain to the people how he carried out constituency projects during his term as MP, a positon he held for two terms.
He said Mr Sopage is one of the candidates that will contest in the upcoming national elections, and people have been curious and are seeking explanation from him regarding how he took charge of the constituency projects when he was their MP.
Garimane said that these issues include financial assistance given by the government to build a constituency centre, a roofing iron machine, a machine to drill water, Lucas mills, housing project, a health clinic, a roofing iron project, a water tank project and the issue of constituency funds that were transferred to a private account.
With documents to show, he informed the paper that Sopage had received a sum of $500,000 for roofing iron project in 2010 and $300,000 for a 2012 water tank project both under the Ministry of Rural Development Project.
Garimane adds that an amount of $1,200,264 was also received by a private account instead of being deposited into the constituency’s account.
The paper was able to contact Sopage, who explained that during his two terms as North Guadalcanal’s member of parliament, the government had carried out auditing work in the constituency where people were questioned about the projects he carried out.
He also said that everything he had done was audited and he was not questioned about it.
