BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

A local fisherman has questioned the government on just how accessible the Economic Stimulus Package is for rural people.

He said listening through the radio and reading from newspapers about the Stimulus package, only few can access the funding but for the majority of rural people who also contribute to the economy they will not really benefit from it.

The fisherman hopes that there should be independent assessment and screening of applications so that citizens alike can equally access the fund.

Last week the National Government began the process in implementing the Economic Stimulus Package following Cabinet’s approval of the COVID-19 Economic Stimulus Package to address the negative economic impacts on the local economy.

Submissions for the Stimulus Package will be closed on June 5, 2020 – this Friday.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in his recent national address also said the primary objective is to address the immediate impacts of the crisis. This is to ensure the local economy remain afloat during these challenging times.

He said applications are open for submissions in the areas of agriculture, fisheries, tourism and forestry industries.

Awareness programmes have also been undertaken to inform people in the rural areas about the purpose and aim of the economic stimulus package.

By Alfred Sasako

THE Honiara City Council has defended its decision to remove deputy Treasurer Obedson Pina, saying hiring and firing of staff is a prerogative of the Executive.

As well, the Council yesterday called on Cr Billy Abae to stop the witch hunt, he has engaged in against the Council since he was removed as Chair of the Council’s Finance Committee.

“Cr Abae should accept his sacking with humility and use the incident as a learning curve for his future good,” a City Council spokesman told Island Sun last night.

“If Cr Abae has nothing to do, we wish to let him know that we have a lot of work to do. He should use his talents on something that will benefit the 60, 000 or so residents of Honiara rather than use it to criticize the Administration,” the spokesman said.

The spokesman was responding to Cr Abae’s latest tirades in an article being published by the Solomon Star newspaper this morning.

In it, Cr Abae denied he was scheming to overthrow the Honiara City Council administration led by Mayor Wilson Mamae.

But the spokesman said the Council does not want to engage in mud-slinging over the legitimate removal of Cr Abae and others.

“All we can say to Cr Abae is this: stop misleading the people of Honiara with false information. Your sacking should not be used to poison innocent Councilors and officials.”

HCC exclusive

By Alfred Sasako

IF anyone epitomizes patience and hard work in learning the ropes of political ascendancy, Wilson Mamae is certainly one. The new Lord Mayor of the Honiara City Council has been through thick and thin in a political system, which has shown it has no place for the weak and faint-hearted.

Over the years, Mayor Mamae watched the play makers in lobbying new Members of Parliament to join this or that group with the aim of forming the next government.

The new Lord Mayor watched behind-the-scene activities including political feud played out after each national general election every four years. If he had any fascination or political ambition to be up there, he did not show it … until a year ago that is.

In May last year, the quietly spoken boy from East Fataleka decided to make a move. He contested (Ward   ) in the Honiara City Council election and won.

Using the wealth of political experience he must have gathered over the years in watching the level of lobbying that was going on at the national political level Cr Mamae did not want to stop at just winning the Council election.

He put his name for the big one – the Mayoral seat – and again, won.

In an act intended not only to appease but encourage cooperation amongst new Councilors, Mayor Mamae appointed his political rival for the Mayoral position, Reginald Ngati, as Chair of the Council’s Adhoc Committee.

Little did he know at the time that a year on Cr. Ngati would allegedly conspire with others to turn against him.

“I cannot accept that kind of attitude. It is like stabbing me from the back. So I fired him,” Mayor Mamae told Island Sun in an exclusive interview over the weekend.

Cr. Ngati was not the only one who fell on his own sword.

Cr. Billy Abae, who won the Vavaya Ward in last year’s City Council election, was another. According to the Mayor, Cr Abae was relieved of his duties (sacked) as Chairman of the Council’s Finance Committee after several warnings to lift his work performance and to stop alleged alcohol-related incidents in the Council Office.

“Cr Abae ignored the warnings so he too was fired,” Mayor Mamae said.

The Mayor has now accused both men of being part of a network involving Councilors and at least two senior reporters of the Solomon Star of conspiring to destabilize his administration.

“These people have been spreading false information about what my Administration is doing. Their idea is to tarnish the names of the Council and its officials to distract us from what we have set out to do,” he said.

The Mayor was particularly ticked off by an editorial in the Solomon Star newspaper last Saturday. Among other things, the article accused the Honiara City Council of acting illegally in borrowing $1.8 million from a Mr. John Szetu, an Appointed Councilor, for the purchase of fire extinguishers.

“The article is false and full of misleading information. The Council never borrowed any money,” the Mayor snapped back.

“What happened is this. The initial idea of buying the fire extinguishers comes from Members of the Council Core Coordinating Committee (4Cs) who came into my office one day and said they had a proposal to discuss,” Mayor Mamae said.

“The background to all this is that when I took over as Mayor, the Council’s bank accounts were literally empty. There was no money even to pay Councilors’ Ward grants. We were living on a hand-to-mouth situation,” he said.

What we’ve found is that the Council’s books have never been audited since 2015.

“We have now begun the audits of 2016, 2017 and 2018 accounts,” the Mayor said.

On the fire extinguisher proposal, the 4Cs told the Mayor that, at its request Appointed Councilor Szetu has agreed to provide $1.8 million of his own money to buy fire extinguishers from China under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) arrangement between the Honiara City Council and Jingsan Anbao Firefighting Company Ltd.

“My response it was ok to proceed as long as the decision would not have any repercussions for the Council. The 4Cs simply said there would not be any. Cr Abae was a member of the 4Cs at the time. He was at the meeting in my Office as well as Appointed Councilor Szetu,” he said.

“Under the purchase arrangement, funds recouped from the sale of the extinguishers would be returned to Appointed Cr Szetu. So there is no debt to the Council in any way.

“To suggest we borrowed the money is not only misleading but false. The money was offered by a Councilor who was willing to help salvage the Council from its financial strife,” he said.

“It’s the same arrangement the 4Cs have made for advancing their Ward grants.”

About 10 of the 12 elected Councilors advanced their Ward grants on the understanding that once their grants are paid they would reimburse the money. Mayor Mamae was not one of those who advanced their Ward grants.

“I was in Fiji at the time so I did not ask for it,” he said.

Part 2 of this interview will appear on Wednesday.

Customers to wait until 2022 to get cheaper internet

By EDDIE OSIFELO

CUSTOMERS are expected to enjoy the full benefits of the Coral Sea cable which promises faster and cheaper internet – in two years’ time.

According to Australia, the Coral Sea Cable System is a 4,700km long fibre optic submarine cable system linking Sydney, Australia, to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea and Honiara, Solomon Islands.

The project also includes a 730km submarine cable system connecting Honiara to Auki (Malaita Island), Noro (New Georgia Island) and Taro Island.

Currently, customers are still to see the reality of the faster and cheaper internet after the launching of the cable in February this year.

Haggai Arumae, Commissioner (Acting) of Telecommunication Commission Solomon Islands (TCSI) told Pacific Beat of Radio Australia that it will not have a massive change at the moment, I mean gradually.

Arumae said the operators have contract with satellite companies up to 2021, 2022, so they honour the agreements first.

“We will not expect much impact on the pricing reduction.

“We don’t expect to be cheaper in the shorter term, but maybe in the long run when all the traffic goes into the cable from all the operators when they sort of ended their contracts with the satellites. So hopefully in two years,” he said.

The four main telecommunication operators in the country are Our Telekom, Bmobile-Vodafone and Satsol.

However, customers in Honiara, Auki and Noro have the change to watch internet on mobile phones through purchasing data from Our Telekom after it hooked up on the cable.

For the rest of the country, it will be a long wait until 2022 to experience the faster internet.

According to Pacific Beat, internet companies in Papua New Guinea still want to use the satellite because they get better prices from it.

As such they do not want to connect to the cable at the moment because of the high price generate by it.

The Solomon Islands Government had previously chosen Chinese telecommunications equipment vendor Huawei Telecommunications to connect the cable from Sydney to Honiara.

However, the deal changed due to international security threat posed by Huawei if it establishes the cable.

In return, the Australia government agreed to pay nearly $137 million fibre optic cable in 2018 to connect the cable from Sydney to Honiara and Port Moresby.

By EDDIE OSIFELO

DEVELOPMENT Bank of Solomon Islands (DBSI) is definitely ready to start lending in early June.

Trevor Manemahaga, secretary of the DBSI interim board and political appointee in the Prime Minister Office, confirmed to Island Sun on Monday 25th May.

Manemahaga said there will be a meeting today to discuss the start of the lending.

“We are planning to start lending on Friday.

“However, this will depend on the approval of Minister of Finance and Treasury and his permanent secretary,” he said.

Manemahaga said Small Medium Enterprises, rural enterprises or farmers and large corporations can apply to the bank.

He said it is still not confirm how much the bank can lend to the successful applicants.

A Fijian, Tukana Bovoro was appointed as a new Chief Executive Office to lead DBSI.

Bovoro is accountable to the Board of Directors. The initial role will be to support the re-establishment of the DBSI, taking over from where the Interim Board has brought the Bank up to.

The CEO will be responsible for leading, directing and providing guidance for the overall operations of the organization and implementing the vision and strategic priorities for the Bank.

Many companies which their businesses are affected by the impact of the coronavirus are looking forward to apply to DBSI when it opens its service.

The revitalization of DBSI is a priority of the National Government that has received bipartisan support because of the need for an institution to provide financial services that caters for the needs of all Solomon Islanders.

Government and serving members of parliament realize that the country as a whole has not progressed economically and socially as it could have because of the absence of financial institutions that will look at the needs of Solomon Islanders in a more holistic and at the same time financially viable manner.

Parliament passed the DBSI Act 2018, in November 2018, paving the way for the re-establishment of the DBSI.

BY CHARLES KADAMANA

HONIARA City Clerk Rence Sore has broken his silence to clear the controversial deal fire extinguisher procurement arrangement with Chinese company, Jingsan Anbao Firefighting Company Limited.

He said the deal was for good intention to save lives and properties within the city following a fire incident when Motor Corporation was burnt down in September last year.

City council has been under the spotlight in recent weeks when the former chairman of finance Willie Billy Abae made a call to investigate the uncounted revenue collected for sale of Fire Extinguisher following his sacking.

To shed some light Mr Sore told local media yesterday that initially the idea to introduce fire extinguishers came out on September 7, 2019 when they attended Solomon Islands Football Federation (Under 23) Corporate Table Dinner at Point Cruz Yatch club.

He said on the event some members of the HCC Executive and Council Core Coordinating Committee (4cs) were attending the corporate dinner when a fire incident happened and that is when they start discussing the issue of Fire Extinguishers to protect properties and lives in the City.

He said the 4Cs then agreed to take the matter of Fire Extinguishers forward.

A day later on September 8 and onwards consultation amongst the 4Cs on the issue continued so as consultations with the other councillors had also commenced.

Sore said consultative consensus was reached to formalise the matter of fire extinguishers and a Public Private Partnership (PPP) was agreed to as a way forward.

In this process, the mayor and the clerk were consulted to progress the matter of fire extinguishers.

Sore revealed that on November 15 last year a PPP Agreement was signed with Jingsan Anbao Firefighting Company Ltd of China on trial basis.

On November 18 a purchase order was signed between the company and HCC and eight days later a purchase order was signed between the two parties.

The media was told yesterday afternoon that two containers had been ordered but only half of the first one container has been sold.

On November 30, Jingsan invoiced HCC and a day later an international transfer of $1.8m was paid to the supplier.

Sore reveals that by the end of last year, the Council had no money to pay for the fire extinguishers so they approached appointed councillor John Szetu so that they could borrow money from.

Sore said Szetu agreed to support in good faith and HCC would refund his money.

The City Clerk adds refund attracts no interest and Szetu was never part of the PPP signed between HCC and Jingsan.

“So, we signed an agreement and he gave us $1.8m,” he said.

“He came to our rescue,” said Sore.

In fact, Szetu had acted in good faith and gave his own money to the council to purchase those fire extinguishers, said Sore.

Sore maintains that the HCC Approved Fire Extinguishers were consultatively agreed and recommended to the City Mayor by the 4Cs and him being the city clerk as expected administratively implement the recommendation.

Sore said HCC is engaging a legal firm to represent and to clear out its name that was defamed by the mainstream and social media.

The City Clerk said they are engaging a private law firm because the Attorney-General’s Office is busy with COVID-19 pandemic measures.

When asked whether the deal went through a tender process, he said it is a trial project, so they signed the Public-Private Partnership programme with testing in mind.

“So, we identified the most suitable partner and signed the partnership.

He also explains that company was identity following a thoughtful search through online considering the price and quality of the products.

He said if the trial does not work out well, they will look for other suitable company to supply the fire extinguisher.

WALE calls on government to explain boundaries of Alligator Creek to Poha zone

The Leader of Opposition Matthew Wale calls on the government to take note of the issue raised by the Chief Magistrate on the lack of coordinates for the boundary of the Emergency Zone which now also the area of focus for the upcoming lock down.

In her recent ruling in the criminal case, Regina v Kevin Tarifiu & Others – CC N0. 379/2020, the Chief Magistrate stated that the lack of coordinates clearly demarcating the boundary of the Emergency Zone as defined in the Emergency Zone (COVID 19) (Declaration of Honiara as Emergency Zone) Order 2020, will have a bearing on the issue of place of residence within the emergency zone.

Mr Wale points out that, “According to the map attached to the Covid 19 plan, although there is a red line indicating the inland side of the emergency zone boundary, there are no coordinates to go with this line”. 

He says if this means there are none in place then it raises the question where exactly on the ground is the red line.

“Given the order purports to restrict the freedom of movement of people into and within, and confine people within to their places of residences, the point raised by the court must not be brushed aside.

“People must know precisely where exactly between Poha river and Alligator Creek is the emergency zone so they are clear on whether they are affected or not. 

“This is not only an issue for people residing on the fringes of Honiara but even those right in the centre.  In the absence of any coordinates, how can one say, Rove or Titinge is in the emergency zone?” Wale questions.

He says while the lockdown may be viewed as an important exercise by some, ensuring that the exercise affects people at the bare minimum is crucial. 

“We are talking about suspending people’s movement to access food, water and other basic needs on a daily basis by law and so the point raised by the Chief Magistrate is important.

“I therefore call on the government to seriously look into the issue. The last thing we want is to spend a lot of money on police enforcement only to find that there is a legal defect that might make all those efforts and spending of emergency funds futile in the end,” the Opposition Leader adds. 

–OPPOSITION PRESS