BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
THE court has granted variation on the bail condition for Member of Parliament for Savo Russells Dickson Mua to allow him to travel overseas for medical check.
All documents requested by the Prosecution has been provided and so court granted the application to vary the MP’s bail condition yesterday.
The case is then adjourned to December 05 for mention.
Mua was arrested and charged by police recently, in relation to the offence of alleged conversion.
The incident was said to occur in 2013. It was alleged that he (Mua) converted $3m shipping grants for his constituency for other purposes.
The allegation relates to an application that was submitted by Mua to the Ministry of Infrastructure Development. It was alleged that the MP was seeking $3m from the Solomon Islands Government through the National Transport Fund in 2013 to purchase a ship for Savo Russells Constituency.
The proposal was processed and approved by MID and the funds were paid on December 30 2013.
It was alleged that on second January 2014, the Constituency Development Officer of Savo/Russells collected the cheque from the Ministry of Finance and deposited the monies to the Savo Russell constituency bank account.
Police further alleged that the MP started to make series of withdrawals from the account when the money was deposited until that money was completely withdrawn in February 2014.
Investigation revealed that instead of using the $3m 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It also further alleged that $200,000 of the money was withdrawn as cash and use for other expenses not related to the purposes of the shipping grant.
