THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will this morning, begin to hear from the number of Ministries that were allocated funds under the 2017 Supplementary Appropriation Bill.
Submitted as the 2017 Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2018, the Committee is expected to use two days, to inquire into how these ministries have used their allocations and what have come out of them, as far as policy achievement is concerned.
The Ministries scheduled to appear in today’s hearing are, the Ministry of Finance and Treasury, the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, and the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Disaster Management.
The others include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade, the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, and the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affair & National Judiciary, which are expected to appear before the committee tomorrow.
There were two Supplementary Appropriation Bills for 2017, one was presented under the leadership of Snyder Rini as former Finance Minister, seeking a total of over $400 million, and the other was submitted under Manasseh Sogavare who is the current Minister of Finance and Treasury, asking for only a total of $43,906,376.
Both supplementary appropriations according to their objectives, were identical in explanatory notes, which were to supplement additional expenditure and expenditure already authorised by the Minister of Finance and Treasury under provisions in the 2017 Appropriation Act 2016.
That is through contingency warrants and advance warrants, and both were also for the service of the year ending 31 December2017, and many of these services and implementation programmes were also carried forward into the 2018 Budget.
This year, a total of $226 million was approved for a number of ministries that were forced to seek supplementary allocations, after their estimates in the 2018 budget were slashed.
The hearing into the 2017 Supplementary Appropriation Bill 2018 according to Parliamentary Schedule, starts at 9:30am this morning and ends tomorrow.
THE people of Auki/Langalanga are requesting their Member of Parliament (MP) to visit them to clarify how the funds for their constituency had been used.
A voter from Auki/Langalanga says on behalf of his people, he is calling on their MP, Mathew Wale to visit them and explain the acquittal reports from 2008 to 2018.
He said the people only wants to know how monies for their constituency had been spent. He said the money which their MP is withholding information on, belongs to the tax payers of this country.
“The money does not belong to government. We only want to know how the monies are being spent”.
He said they are not asking about projects being built in their constituency through the different government ministries and projects but are merely enquiring about monies allocated for the constituency through constituency funds.
“It is all that we want to know. Nothing else”, he said.
He says this is the time of the year where members of parliament are obliged to respond to their electorates whether they like it or not. He said as a voter in Auki/Langalanga constituency and a tax payer in Solomon Islands, he demands accountability from his MP.
“Because he will be contesting again and we need to know how the money is being spent. This is the peak time of politics and it is our time to make our MPs accountable”.
He said their MP shouldn’t be worried if he has nothing to hide.
Island Sun has not been able to get a respond from the MP nor members of his Steering Committee.
THE court was informed yesterday that the memo sent to the Prosecution for consideration in relation to the charges against the former MP for West Makira Constituency, Hypolite Taremae is yet to be considered.
The Public Prosecutor Dalcy Belapitu said that the Director of the Public Prosecution is currently overseas and the memo has been sent to him already and awaits his say on the memo sent.
Belapitu confirmed in court that the DPP will be returning on October 23.
Belapitu also said pre-trial conference has already been conducted on the case before Principal Magistrate Fatimah Taeburi.
The case was then adjourned to October 24 for mention and also for the prosecution to consider the memo from the defence counsel.
This is the case against the former MP who has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. A Pre Trial Conference has been set as he was arrested for allegation of misappropriation of fund in 2011 and 2013.
The allegation said Taremae has misappropriated more than $200, 00 for a reafforestation project for Central Makira Constituency.
He was arrested and charged with conversion late in May this year.
Office of the Director Public Prosecution appears for crown while Anderson Kesaka is representing the accused.
THE Solomon Islands Electoral Commission (SIEC) is yet to determine if the former Member of Parliament for Temotu Vatud Freda Tuki, is eligible to contest in a by-election (if it is to be held) or the 2019 National General Elections.
In an earlier statement, Chief Electoral Officer, Mose Saitala said, his office was waiting for a written copy of Monday’s High Court verdict to determine the eligibility of the former.
The Commission was supposed to have met yesterday to understand if the High Court weighs its verdict on the Electoral Act 2018 or the previous Act.
According to Electoral officials, no decisions have been made yet and they are anticipating any outcome later today.
According to Saitala, understanding the verdict would help the Commission determine if Ms. Tuki is qualified to contest in the coming national general elections.
He pointed out that there is uncertainty on the penalties that will be applied, whether they will be based on the new act or the old act.
There are also questions surrounding the validity for the courts to have used the old Act to prosecute the former’s case, as it has already been replaced by the new Electoral Act 2018.
“The offence was actually prosecuted on what happened in 2014, because it is an offence under the old act, but the old act is already gone.”
Understandably, under the new Act, the former would have been disqualified to contest in the 2019 national general elections, but may not be the case under the old act.
Based on the old Electoral Act, the ousted MP may not be eligible to contest any by-election straight after the High Court’s ruling that resulted in her automatic removal, but can contest in the next national election.
Meanwhile, the Chief Electoral Officer added that at its meeting, the Commission would also decide if a by-election for Temotu VATUD was necessary when the next national general elections, are just within months away.
However, legal officials say any plans to hold a by-election would be unjustifiable and unnecessary, having only less than three months left before the 10th Parliament House is dissolved.
They also stressed that an early poll for the affected constituency to elect a representative in any by-election may not happen due to the fact that the government has never budgeted for it, meaning, unavailability of funds, but mostly, due to limitation.
They outlined that the authorities will have to fulfil a set of processes leading up to any election and the election period itself, whether it will be a national general election or a by-election.
“An election has number processes, and they include, the nomination period, the campaign period and the election period, with the first two requiring more time and could only be at the campaign period when parliament will be dissolved”.
They however warned that any intention to fast track the processes will be deemed illegal, as it will be in breach of the procedures in the Electoral Act and the National Constitution.
Despite nothing been revealed, the Commission according to officials, will have to come out with a decision within this week on the eligibility status of the former Vatud MP to contest and if a by-election should be held.
Tuki was ousted after High Court Judge Rex Foukona ruled in favour of petitioner and former Vatud MP Clay Forau in one of the last 2014 successful election petition cases.
THE court has set the trial date into the case of a man facing armed robbery charge to next year.
This is the case against Gabriel Osifelo of Ata village in Malaita province. Police alleged that on March 7 this year, he with four other boys armed with a bush knife threatened the complainant of the case.
The alleged incident occurred at the Tenaru area.
Police said that the other four boys are currently at large and yet to be arrested.
Police said that around 1200hrs, at a Cocoa house, they threatened a woman and ordered her to give them her bag. The bag is said to contain a sum of $1000 and two mobile phones.
Eye witnesses said the accused went straight to the victim and pointed her with the bush knife and took the victim’s bag and escaped into the cocoa plantation.
The matter was reported to police where an operation was conducted in which the accused was arrested at the Burns creek.
This case will appear again for mention in the next 14 days.
THERE is good news for Pan Oceanic Bank (POB) and it’s largely logging company clients at long last.
Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) Governor Denton Rarawa told Island Sun this week he was confident the issue of correspondent banking relationship (CBR) should be cleared before the deadline at the end of December this year.
The issue threatens the stability of the nation’s financial system and has implications for the economy.
Mr Rarawa met with the Senior Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) and the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Crown Agent Bank (CAB) in Bali, Indonesia this week.
He said after the meeting that he was confident the matter would be resolved before the December end deadline.
“I met with Senior Vice President of FRBNY and Group CEO Crown Agent Bank (CAB) here in Bali (on Tuesday) and they are very pleased with the progress POB is making towards complying with the requirements of CAB.
“The Group CEO of CAB has indicated that they will establish a CBR with POB before the deadline. So I am confident that we will meet the end December deadline,” Mr Rarawa said.
Despite this positive development, serious allegations remain. These include ill-treatment of local staff, particularly female officers, appointments to the POB Board of two individuals, said to be identified in the Panama Papers as international money launderers.
Mr Rarawa had earlier acknowledged that these allegations were undermining efforts by CBSI to rectify the issue of correspondent banking relationship (CBR).
He denied there was any substance to these and other allegations contained in a lengthy letter sent to Island Sun this week.
THE man alleged for involving in an armed robbery incident on July 2014 has pleaded not guilty to the two charges against him.
The accused Dilo Faiga entered not guilty pleas to the two charges, one is the armed robbery charge and the other charge is the willful and unlawful damage charge.
Mr Faiga from Manakwai village in Malaita province was allegedly involved in an armed robbery incident on 25 July 2014 with another co-accused whose case was delayed due to non-appearance in court.
Police alleged that Dilo Faiga and the other co-accused were involved in the armed robbery incident where they uprooted the ATM machine at the Kwaimani building using crow bars before carrying the ATM machine into the waiting car and drove off to Henderson.
It was alleged that more than $400,000 was in that machine but they allegedly took only more than $200,000 from the top tray as they cannot open the bottom tray.
According to police they said that the men arrived at the building and threatened security guards by gun point and uprooted the machine.
After successfully uprooting the machine they dragged it to the waiting car and drove off to Henderson where they allegedly opened and stole the money from the top tray.
Police alleged that the security guard who followed them on that night also received $30,000 and that money was not recovered yet.
Bradley Dalipanda of the office Director Public Prosecution appears for the state while Lazarus Waroka of the Public Solicitor’s Office represents the accused in court.
Foreign owned company only supplier to receive millions of CDF payments from government
By Alfred Sasako
THE Ministry of Finance and Treasury has reportedly renewed the Government’s Preferred Supplier Policy, which many say is favouring foreign-owned companies, it was revealed yesterday.
The revelation comes as an Island Sun story on hundreds of millions of dollars in Constituency Development Fund (CDF) payments to a foreign-owned company went viral on social media.
The policy was adopted in 2016, denying many local companies from participating in the normal tendering process as only those in the Preferred Supplier List were eligible to put in bids.
According to figures obtained by Island Sun, JQY Enterprises Ltd received total payments of $233, 845, 967.49 in the seven years to September this year. The payments were made directly to JQY Enterprises Ltd by the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD).
It is not clear what items, if any were bought from the company. It is also unclear how many Members of Parliament sourced their orders from JQY Enterprises Ltd, which sells heavy vehicle and equipment, spare parts and so on.
Angry posters questioned why local companies were overlooked in the process by Members of Parliament, when local companies also have the knowledge and the network to source machineries and vehicles.
Meanwhile a group of contractors with the Ministry of Infrastructure Development has questioned why JQY could easily get their payments while “we have been waiting since last year to be paid.”
The Ministry owes the whole group of us between $5 million and $6 million in unpaid contracts.
“Many of us survive on the small contracts we get from the government. But since last year, we have not been paid. In some cases, our water and electricity supplies have been cut due to non-payment,” a contractor who spoke on condition of anonymity told Island Sun.
“We are also struggling to get our kids to school,” the contractor said.
The contractor said when the Financial Controller (FC) of the Ministry was approached about why other companies including JQY were getting paid, the FC reportedly told the contractors that “the payments were arranged at the higher level.”
Seasonal workers having a chit chat with the employers and co-ordinator.
BY GEORGINA KEKEA
SOLOMON Islands is hosting the Pacific Labour Mobility Annual Meeting (PLMAM) in Honiara this week. The purpose of this PLMAM is to provide a regular forum to discuss regional labour mobility priorities.
Established under the Labour Mobility arrangement of the Pacer Plus Agreement, the arrangement establishes an annual meeting as the primary mechanism through which regional cooperation will be advanced.
The meeting is intended to address key elements of cooperation set out in the arrangement. This includes enhance existing labour mobility schemes and exploring opportunities for new labour mobility, build institutional capacity of agencies that manage labour mobility, promote and improve current visa categories to facilitate greater circulation of temporary workers, tertiary vocational education and training as well as to recognize qualifications and registration of occupations.
Two participants to the PLMAM who are also farm owners in Australia.
Australia and New Zealand have committed to fund the annual meetings. Signatories to the arrangement will take turns hosting the meetings.
In his foreword address, Prime Minister Rick Hou says everyone must take advantage of this gathering.
“The various labour mobility programs we have individually embarked upon in our respective countries have indeed changed the lives of many of our people for the better. We have witnessed tremendous development from our returning workers. Families, communities and the countries benefit. The program have also benefitted both Australia and New Zealand”, Hou said.
Seasonal workers having a chit chat with the employers and co-ordinator.
The meeting proper starts today under the theme, ‘Shaping our futures together’.
Prior to the meeting proper, participants also took part in optional activities. Yesterday, farm owners and employers took an excursion to visit workers in the Seasonal Workers Program (SWP) and Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) scheme.
The excursion yesterday was at Kakabona and Visale. Most of the seasonal workers yesterday were gathered at Kakabona to meet the employers.
The meeting proper will end on Friday.
An interview with the media is part of the activities of the session.Participants to PLMAM mingling during the excursion.
A seasonal worker poses with the vehicle he bought from monies earned in the seasonal workers scheme.
BY GEORGINA KEKEA
SOLOMON Islanders continue to benefit from the Seasonal Workers Scheme (SWS) in Australia. Since its establishment in 2012, the number of farm workers from Solomon Islands has more than doubled from 42 in 2012 to 87 in 2017.
The most common goal of these workers is to have a house, a decent living and to be able to support their family. From a village close to Tambea, Joseph Cheka is a new dad. He left home in March this year (2018) to work under the SWS in Australia leaving behind his six month old child and new wife.
The daunting future of not having a roof over their head drove Joseph to leave his home to earn money for his family.
“I used to sell copra. I started the foundation of my house through selling copra. At that time, a bag of copra was SBD$4.00 per kilo. You can imagine how much hard work I have to go through in order to save money. I used to earn SBD$400.00 at the most per market”.
Drying coconut to make copra takes time. The method used for most rural Solomon Islanders is drying where the kernel or coconut meat is left in the sun to dry. It can take a week at the most to dry the coconut. Prior to that, they have to collect the coconut fruits, remove the husks and then remove the kernel to be left out to dry. Depending on the amount of coconut dried, a villager can get SBD$400.00 to SBD$700.00 (AUD$70.00 to AUD$120.00) a fortnight.
Freda Sikwae with two of her four children.
By working in Australia, a villager can earn an estimated AUD$1000 per week (SBD$5650 a week) after deductions.
“So now I am back in the country, I will continue to work on my house. All I want is a permanent house with good sanitation facilities”, Cheka said.
Sharing the same sentiment is mother of four, Freda Sikwae. Her eldest son is already a teenager. Freda grew up at Kakabona and still lives there.
“I used to be a market vender. That’s all I do. But I feel that I have gained nothing out of it since I am only living for today. I want my children to have a future that includes having a good home and house to stay in. That was why I have to leave my children no matter the time frame”.
For Freda this is the first time she has left her family behind for a long time. She said it was hard at first but then she started to settle in and things got better.
Freda worked in Gin Gin a town in Queensland where she was responsible for classifying the fruits according to the different grades. She said her responsibility was enormous because one slight mistake can damage the company’s quality control. She said she had to learn on the job, a task she found easy to do. She said in between the eight hours work, she also had 30 minutes break in two hour intervals over the day.
For Cheka, his job is picking citrus fruits on a farm in Mildura in Victoria in south-east Australia
“In comparison to copra, this is easy. The weather is conducive since it is way cooler then the stifling heat here in our country. So no matter what, I enjoyed my job and I am thankful for the opportunity”.
For them, communication is not a problem. Freda speaks to her children each day via the Facebook Messenger app and feels close to them despite the distance. She said it brightens her day when she talks to her children and it gives her hope to continue work each day.
Joseph Cheka
For Joseph, he only speaks to his family occasionally. Telecommunications are a problem where they live so he can only speak to his family once they go to the nearest town. Like Freda, his family also communicated with him using Messenger.
“We are lucky in Australia because they provide free Wi-Fi where we were lodged unlike my family, they have to buy data in order for them to talk to me. And this happens only when they come into town”, Cheka said.
Back in Solomon Islands, Cheka is happy just to be with his wife, baby and extended family.
Over the six-month stint, they are working on fulfilling their dream. Cheka said he will continue to build his house, while Freda is working on building another house for her family.
“We have a house already, but I want another one where I can put out for rent since housing is a problem in the country. Once complete, I can then put out for rent and my children’s future is secure”, Freda said.
Though at times they send money back home for urgent needs, there is still enough left that they have saved.
Coming from the same recruiting agency, they both say having the support of fellow peers is important while overseas.
It was their first time overseas and it definitely won’t be the last.
“I am now an expert in maneuvering through the airport and customs. Something which I was quite fearful of when I first stepped on Australian soil”, Cheka said.
For Freda she said she got through each day by being thankful that her children are safe and not being harmed or ill.
“The six months went by very fast when one is being kept busy. We have no time to go out socializing. We get up at 4am for an hour’s drive to our work place. By the time we get home, it will be night and we only want to rest”.
A seasonal worker poses with the vehicle he bought from monies earned in the seasonal workers scheme.
