THE Office of the Prime Minister & Cabinet (OPMC) has described a story in the Solomon Star newspaper today regarding the Prime Minister’s trip to APEC as ‘completely erroneous and totally misleading’.

The article quoted the Public Accounts Committee Chairman and MP for East Honiara Hon Douglas Ete stating that the Prime Minister’s recent trip to Papua New Guinea to attend the APEC meeting costed the Government $2.7 Million.

“This figure is totally inaccurate,” it said.

The OPMC stated that the total cost was in fact $471,489.50.

The OPMC statement said reporters must practice responsibility.

“Reporters owe it to the reading public to tell the truth. As much as possible, reporters must check to verify their stories before reporting. In this case no one cared to check with the OPMC before publishing the inaccurate and misleading story,” it said.

POLICE at Tulagi in Central Province is investigating into the alleged suicide of a woman at the Dota Community High School on Small Gela Island on 26 November 2018.

PPC Maelasi says, “The woman who is from Makira and Gela, is married with two children and was residing at the School with her husband who is a teacher at Dota Community High School.”

Inspector Maelasi explains: “Police in Tulagi were informed when officers attended to the scene of the incident on Monday 26 November 2018. The husband of the deceased left her and their children at about 9 am to teach at the School.

He says, “With the help of other teachers and students, the husband tried to take his wife to the hospital at Tulagi but she died on the way.”

“We are still investigating the incident so at this stage we cannot say what led the woman to harm herself but just want to remind our good people of Central Province that there is nothing more valuable than life. My advice is that if you have any personal problems seek help immediately. There’s always someone within our communities that is willing to assist you. Taking one’s own life will have a lasting effect especially on the children,” says PPC Maelasi.

–RSIPF MEDIA

By Gary Hatigeva

A total of 13 reporters from five Media Organisations, including Transparency Solomon Islands (TSI) are currently participating in a two days training on Budget Reporting in Solomon Islands.

This comes as part of a capacity building program for media reporting on major issues in the pacific.

This is made possible through the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), in collaboration with the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI), supported by Aus Aid.

With the inclusion of representatives from the Budget Unit within the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, the training aims to give local journalists insights to matters involved in how budgets are formulated.

The training also provides journalists in-depth knowledge of the technical aspects of budgets, with anticipations to help in the reporting of government budgets.

Media representatives get to hear from specialists and divisions of their roles and responsibilities in relation to the budgeting processes, both within the Ministry of Finance and the National Parliament.

Officially opening the session, Clerk to the National Parliament, Clezy Rore reminded participants to take on board the knowledge and skills that is shared in the duration of the training, to assist them in their strife for good journalism. Which is to genuinely and accurately inform, educate and raise awareness on the developments that are happening in the heart of the country’s democracy.

“The objective of this workshop is helping local journalists understand the national budget and its processes and how journalists can translate this to the citizens.

“It will enable you to report on the budget accurately and give a proper account to our citizens as well as build closer links with Parliamentary officers and Ministry of Finance and Treasury (MoFT) officers who are directly involved in the budget process,” the Parliament Clerk stressed.

Also gracing the official opening of the training, Chairman of the Bills and Legislation Committee and MP for Aoke/Langalanga, Matthew Wale, further pointed out that it is important journalists understand what they will be writing and reporting on, before presenting cases to their audiences.

He added that this also applies to budget reporting, where it is vitally important for journalists to understand their cores and technicalities in order to simplify them for public consumption.

“It is a responsibility that the country relies on for an informed populace,” the BLC Chair added.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

POLICE Commissioner Mathew Varley says police will be providing high visibility operation during the omission and objection hearing that is scheduled for December 4.

He said several hundreds of Police officers will be part of the operation to make sure peace and security is maintained during the process of the objection hearing.

This is the very important part of the process as we approached the National General Election next year.

The RSIPF has a very important role to play and we have been working very closely with the Solomon Islands Electoral Commission in planning and prepare for the high visibility security operation to make sure that the omission and objection can be carried out safely and peaceful.

Police will be visible at the locations where the hearings will be heard and right around the country all Provincial Police Commanders have created their operational plans for deployment in their respective provinces but they will be supported by the National operation led here at the Headquarters, Mr Varley said.

“We will be establishing a Police Operations Command Centre here at the Rove headquarter which will be overseeing by my Assistant Commissioners of Police

“We want to stress here first and foremost these are very important process for our next steps in the electoral systems as we heading towards the NGE.

We are working very closely with the SIEC and we have full cooperation and communication with them on a daily basis in fact we even have a RSIPF liaison officer working several days a week with the SIEC, so we want to see this process takes its course peacefully so we are calling on all chiefs, community leaders, church leaders, elders and the public to help us spread the message of peace safety and security throughout this omission and objection hearing”, Mr Varley said.

He said that police will not tolerate any disturbance and interference to interrupt the process.

–RSIPF MEDIA

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

PRINCIPAL Magistrate Augustine Aulanga has acquitted the man due to the police prosecutor’s failure for not filing closing submission on the case against a man facing simple larceny charges.

Magistrate Aulanga said in light of this prosecutorial ignorance and negligence of its case, the court has serious doubts as to whether the prosecution evidences are worthy or are capable of being accepted.

“Because of this serious defect and omission.

“I am not satisfied that the prosecution has proven its case beyond reasonable doubt and therefore,

“I order that Sammy Vaurou is acquitted forthwith of the charges faced”, Magistrate Aulanga said.

This is the case against an accused Sammy Vaurou who has been charged with two counts of simple larceny,

It is alleged that on two occasions between 1st and January 31st January 2010, he went to a light post at Lanalau Island in the Russel Islands and stole two 12 volts solar batteries and a 30watts solar panel. On the first occasion, the prosecution says he stole the two batteries, followed by the solar panel on the last occasion. These properties were owned by the Marine Division of Solomon Islands government and were never recovered until date.

In every criminal trial, the prosecution bears the onus of proving the case beyond reasonable doubt and this continues until the trial ends. This responsibility does not cease or relinquish midway or towards the end of the trial. It rests with the prosecution from the start to the end of the trial, Magistrate Aulanga said.

He said the trial ended on September 28 and the court made an order that closing submission must be filed by the November 2, this is a period of 35 days being given to both parties since the presiding magistrate would be in Auki for 6 weeks for customary land appeal case.

When the matter resumed in November 2018 only the defense had filed its closing submission. Despite the 35 days period the prosecution has yet to file its written submission thus the court had grant another leniency for the prosecution to file its closing submission by close of business of November 8 in light of the ample time already been given.

Unfortunately even to this date there is no written closing submission filed by the prosecution this is in fact a total of 55 days, calculating from 28/09/18 to this date. The prosecution did not even bother to write a letter to explain why it fails or perhaps refuses to file the closing submission.

“Why this was not done raises more questions than answers”, Magistrate Aulanga said.

Even for the prosecutor to appear and do verbal closing submission on the schedule date did not occur, but only sending of another prosecutor to appear without any instruction is what occurred,

“This is very bizarre and unprofessional practice.

Since there is no filing of the closing submission, the court is definitely in complete absence of any assistance from the prosecution whether to accept the entire evidence adduced by the prosecution witnesses.

Magistrate Aulanga said in his judgment that the importance of closing submission during criminal trial cannot be overlooked. It is the avenue or last opportunity where each party will convince the court why its case must be preferred and accepted than the opposing party. The failure to do so by a party means it concedes to the other party’s case or argument, or an acceptance of being defeated since its case has no merit.

Therefore Magistrate Aulanga acquits the accused and he made orders that the prosecution has the right to appeal within 14 days.

BY LYNTON AARON FILIA

ABOUT sixty community leaders across Solomon Islands have been through a four-day workshop in how to prevent and resolve conflict.

Yesterday the participants have received their certificate of completion which qualified them to carry trainings and awareness about peace-building in their respective communities.

Deputy Director of the MNURP, Malaita Province, Genesis Kofana said chiefs and church and community leaders have considerable experience as peacebuilders across the country.

“After the tensions, every institution failed. Only the church and the women and youth groups that stayed in the villages were able to maintain peace and able to re-grow Solomon Islands,” he said.

“They have been playing that role informally, but this workshop has enabled us to bring the leaders together to formally train them to recognize that skill.”

Kofana adds that community and traditional leaders remain important resources in maintaining peace at the local level.

The peacebuilding and mediation workshop is supported by the United Nations Peace-building Fund (UNPBF) project, which is jointly implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Women.

UNDP Solomon Islands Country Manager Azusa Kubota said seemingly small conflicts have the potential to escalate if those involved lack the skills to manage them.

“When tensions increase to such a level that they begin to restrict economic activity and affect personal security, it stifles business, development and investment,” Ms Kubota said.

She added that if businesses leave and take opportunities with them, it influences cohesion in the community and the country.

“Community leadership plays a very important role in maintaining peace and accelerating prosperity,” Ms. Kubota said.

Workshop sessions will cover peacebuilding, understanding the basics of conflict and how to mitigate escalation to violence to maintain peace in communities.

Trauma and healing will also be addressed along with counseling and mediation services available to victims of conflict in the country.

According to a 2017 UN peacebuilding survey of 2,500 people from across Solomon Islands, more than 76 percent of all respondents said they knew of a dispute that occurred in their community within the past 12 months.

By participating in the peacebuilding and mediation workshop, leaders are expected to develop skills to address the root causes of conflict in their communities, employing nonviolent resolutions that help them collaborate with governments and NGO partners to ensure sustainable peace and development.

The workshop organized by the Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace (MNURP) will help leaders analyze and develop a non-violent approach to conflict and learn mediation skills.

Participants of the workshop comprises of traditional and urban community leaders, including youth and women, from Honiara city.