By Mike Puia
MEMBER of Parliament for Central Honiara, Mr Moffatt Fugui, says good governance system should be in place first before the introduction of the Anti-Corruption Bill (ACB).
Fugui made these comments when contributing to the second reading of the ACB in Parliament last week.
He said government systems must be cleared first before the ACB is introduced as doing the other way is like “putting the cart before the horse”.
Fugui said without the presence of good governance systems at the first place, the ACB will create more problems than it could solve.
He said the ACB is not meant for Solomon Islands saying it’s a foreign law that is meant for other jurisdictions.
Fugui said the other piece of legislation the government should introduce forst along the good governance bill is the Traditional leadership Bill (TLB).
He said when the good governance bill and tractional leadership bill are in place it will progress the country in the right direction.
Fugui said this is when the ACB becomes necessary.
He said the good governance bill will map out how this country wanted to run its government.
He said foundational thinking, customs and practices must be frontloaded with good governance.
He said if oversight institutions like the Ombudsman, Leadership Code Commission and the opposition is not capacitated and financed to do its work properly and independently the ACB stand the chance of falling.
