BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
A cash bail of $5000 was granted by the Court yesterday on the case of Member of Parliament for Savo-Russells Dickson Mua.
Mr Mua was arrested and charged by police over allegations of conversion.
The MP appeared in court yesterday and was released on bail with strict conditions.
He will appear back in court on November 14 for mention.
Mua is charged in relation to an incident which occurred in 2013 in which he was alleged to have converted a $3-million shipping grant for other purposes.
According to the Assistant Commissioner Ian Vaevaso, the allegation relates to an application that was submitted to the Ministry of Infrastructure Development by Mr Mua, and according to the proposal document, the MP was seeking $3million from the SIG through the NTF in 2013 to purchase a ship for Savo Russells Constituency.
The proposal was processed and approved by the MID and the grant was paid on December 30, 2013.
It was alleged that on January 2, 2014 the Constituency Development Officer of Savo/Rusells collected the cheque from the Finance and deposited it in the Savo Russell constituency bank account.
Police further alleged that the MP started to make a series of withdrawals from the account when the money was deposited until that money was completely withdrawn on February 4, 2014.
Mr Vaevaso said the matter was then reported to police and an investigation was carried out which led to police interviewing the MP in February this year.
Investigation revealed that instead of using the $3million to purchase the ship as its intended purpose, the MP allegedly paid $2.8m to a local company for the purpose of items such as OBMs and other equipment for distribution to his supporters in Savo Russell constituency.
It is further alleged that $200,000 of the money was withdrawn as cash and used for other expenses not related to the purpose of the shipping grant.
“Since then the RSIPF corruption targeting team had continued to work closely with the office of the Director Public Prosecutions to finalise the case,” Vaevaso said.
