Home Blog Page 1438

Voruvoru Youths hold first activity for 2018

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

ST PETER the Rock Voruvoru Youths at Northwest Choiseul held their first weekend activity for this year last week Friday, covering topics for debate on logging activities and alcohol consumption.

According to Mr Nerio Ulemiki the media coordinator for Christ the King Parish reporting, youths and adults (men) debated on the topic of logging in which the youths won the adults on points that logging is indeed a bad practise.

“The women won the second debate narrowly on points too over the topic of good and bad effects of drinking alcohol,” said Mr Ulemiki.

He elaborated that the activity attracted the community to participate and support the youths in their program.

The activity held on Friday night was held inside the Voruvoru Community Hall.

Gizo-Kolombangara voters told to vote wisely

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

BY ALFRED PAGEPITU

GIZO

GIZO/Kolombangara Constituency voters are being urged to vote wisely in this by- election.

Governor General, Sir Frank Kabui yesterday announced the by-election for May 23.

A Mr Mathew Kabobule shares with Island Sun Gizo that voters must be wary of candidates who will follow their own interest once in power.

“People need leaders with performance, character and they have vision, courage, integrity, humility and focus along with the ability to plan strategically and catalyse cooperation amongst their people living in rural areas.

“We need leaders with vision and they can see our future.”

Gizo/ Kolombangara has been without a Member of Parliament (MP) since December 2017 when the previous MP lost his seat after the High Court ruled he treated and bribed people to vote for him during the 2014 National General Election.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo and about three other candidates will contest the seat.

Association gives 7-day notice for government

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

BY LORETTA BRIGIDIA MANELE

THE taskforce committee dealing with the border and ethnic tension related claims is now an association.

This is according to former chairman and now president of the association, Mr Henry B Kahui.

He said the change was announced during their meeting at the Children’s Park at Rove yesterday.

Kahui added that former vice chairman and former secretary Mr Martin Paikai and Mr Timothy Sulega are now the association’s vice president and general secretary.

He also mentioned that the association has 15 new members who are stakeholders.

Speaking of the association, Kahui said that it is made up of former and current serving police officers, those from correctional service, former and current ministry of health medical service officers and former special constables.

He added that other members under the constitution of the association include former and current officers of biosecurity, immigration, finance and customs officers, nurses and doctors and public officers who served the nation during the height of the ethnic tension and during the crises between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville at the border.

On another note, Kahui said that all members at the meeting agreed to give another seven-day notice for the government which will be from March 10 to March 18 excluding Saturday and Sunday.

“These days are for negotiation and dialogue. After that period we will then brief our members and look at actions to take. This is what came out of the meeting,” said Kahui.

It is understood that the association had submitted two notices to the national government but were however not given any responses.

SIPEU loans

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR EDITOR, we would like to response to the above article under a fake name Deebonz which appeared on your Island Sun issue no: 2870, dated April 5, 2018.

Deebonz appear to be ignorant of SIPEU Credit Union Ltd operations. He or she doesn’t know what SIPEU Credit Union has gone through the past, the financial situation it has encountered and what the Board of Directors has done to solve the financial situation up until now. SIPEU Credit Union Ltd should have been liquidated back in 2014.

The current Board of Directors who took over the management of SIPEU Credit Union in late 2014 under its reform programme has salvaged SIPEU Credit Union from its financial woes and has now created history.

The milestone achievement of the new office complex, restructure and recruitment of new staff are some of the achievements.

The new office complex is worth SBD$15m on the market value, it generates additional income on rental of SBD$200,000 per month and provide a modern office working environment for our staff and members are served in a comfortable environment.

We are proud of this building. It is a great investment and holds the future of SIPEU Credit Union.

So how do we move from a pig pen office to a new modern office complex? Isn’t that because of perseverance and vigilance from the Board of Directors?

Your reference to member’s contribution is a mere assumption and does not reflect the actual contributions of members received each fortnight.

The average contribution of members per fortnight is only $100 and not $250 as you claimed. With regards to the advance scheme if you are in Honiara you should be well versed with the issues surrounding the scheme.

We often made regular announcements and notices explaining the advance scheme on site. The interest charged is not realised because of huge unrecovered amount.

We are working on that issue and will soon have maximum control over member’s eligibility.

Annual General Meetings and presentation of audited accounts are statutory requirements. We are current with those requirements. The latest Annual General Meeting was held seven months ago.

Where were you when we had our Annual General Meeting? Notice was put on the print media about this Annual General Meeting. Why didn’t you attend? Annual General Meeting are held every year and not after seven months.

During the Annual General Meeting in 2017 we table our 2016 audited financial statements. This year’s annual general meeting will be held again at the required timeline.

You are encouraged to attend and show you are real person.

With regards to the payment of members loans. We have three categories of loan, education loan, ordinary loan and emergency loan. Education loan is normally prioritised in January, February and June in each financial year.

What happen this year is the same last year and the previous years. This year education loan applications were paid within two weeks.

Compare to last year and the year before. Education loan were paid in instalments which took us four to six months to be able to clear all education loans.

To prioritise education loan during the month of January and February in each financial year is a management decision and happen every year.

During this period ordinary and emergency loans were considered on a case by case basis. There is nothing wrong with this decision.

Deebonz if you are serious about SIPEU Credit Union operation and management why hide behind pen names.

What you raise in your article are all non-issues.

Come forward and appreciate the current Board and Management with one mission and that is to make SIPEU Credit Union Ltd great again.

Board of Directors

SIPEU Credit Union Ltd

No short bus route

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR Editor, as a student of the University of South pacific in Solomon Islands had concern on the above matter.

When investigated about the short bus route, there are few buses that running the short bus route and it seems to be one of the issues that really affects movement of people every day when waiting for the bus.

Likewise, I really concerned on that matter because it was really an exhausting things for people every day when waiting for bus.

Although, I am insist on the regulation by the city council is again violated by many bus drivers and especially the buses operating on the east Kola roads which mainly borderline.

The issues in borderline to SDA route, and borderline to Talise is back to the normal scene which affecting the public traveler, particularly students and the workers whom they always late for work and class.

I on behalf of my people in East Honiara kindly asked Honiara city council to take tougher actions and policy against those buses that involves in that matter, because these operators have no respect for the department of council by laws which Honiara city council ( HCC) stated as a laws for every public service especially bus.

The solution which suggested on that matter is, government should provide big bus to operate with professional and hearted persons to drive so that it can help the students and the workers to be on times to schools lesson and the worker at office.

Therefore, any bus that breach the action set by the department of the HCC should be dealt with seriously.

Sincerely,

Michelle kava

Borderline

Abuse of G vehicles by HR managers

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

DEAR Editor, I am very concerned that G Vehicles are continually abuse by Human Resource Managers of some Ministries.

Human Resources Managers are those who are well informed by the government vehicle policies and should abide and oversee the implementation the G vehicles policies and guidelines set down by MID and MPS.

Ministries’ HR Managers should lead by example and should carry out the implementation of those policies, instead they showed other government officers bad precedence/examples to follow.

Those very obvious HR Managers who often abused the G vehicle policies are HR Manager of Ministry of Lands and Customs Excise.

Though they are other HR Managers who are also doing the same unethical practice.

Moreover, this raises the question of those respective Permanent Secretaries capabilities in terms of their roles to monitor and control their officers from such inappropriate actions.

Human Resource Managers should be role-model for other employees in any organisation settings, re-directing others behaviour towards good employees.

J Diau

Honiara

Congratulations to the Honiara City Council – again

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

AS we push into 2018, one government entity appears to have found the right formula to get things done.

The Honiara City Council began at the beginning of the year with the announcement that tinted glasses would be removed from public transport vehicles, essentially taxis and buses from April 1.

Tinted glasses are still here with us. It is hoped that the Council moves to implement this. The Council should focus more on enforcements rather than announcements. It is difficult but not impossible.

For reasons of health, the Council also started on a major clean-up of restaurants and takeaway outlets – a move long overdue. Given the level of dust on our roads, the number of people suffering largely imported diseases, the urgency to act on food outlets is all the more pressing.

This week the Council moves a notch higher on a matter which should have been done a long time ago, but no one had the courage to do so.

It moves to ban foreign language labelling on items sold in shops in Honiara. It’s a commendable move indeed. However, it is not entirely clear whether the move would achieve anything, if at all. Foreign language labelling is merely a symptom of a major problem.

Consider the ability of Chinese companies to quickly replace these labels with those written in English. These labels could be replicated in no time. It would nullify the objective of such an exercise.

Removing the foreign language label is merely touching the surface of a much bigger problem. We need to begin training our own people to read one of the two Chinese languages.

Still, it is commendable that the Honiara City Council has begun putting its front foot forward. It’s no good putting up billboards along the highway announcing this and that without implementing the intention.

A clear example is the large billboard outside the National Referral Hospital, which says smoking is not allowed in buses, taxis and so on. The intention is brilliant, implementation is zero.

Who’s responsible for this?

There’s one other area that the Council should address immediately – Illegal Parking. Penalising illegal parking brings in much-needed dough into Council coffers. It also instils order on our roads as well as safety for all road users.

Go to the main market any day and you will see what I am talking about here. It is chaos at any time on any day. It is important that City Council police are properly trained to issue on the spot fines on drivers who illegally park their vehicles.

Parking lots for large vehicles bringing in local produce to the market should be clearly marked. Anyone parking outside these areas should be penalised for traffic infringements.

Furthermore, traffic police of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) should do spot checks on drivers to see whether or not they have a valid driver’s licence. Many don’t.

Such drivers should be kept off the road for the sake of other road users. Allowing the status quo to go on unhindered only amplifies the problem we are already witnessing on our roads. The worse is yet to come unless moves are taken to address major traffic problems on our roads.

Buses creating extra lane on pedestrian footpaths should also be punished as such practice endangers the lives of pedestrians and other road users. If national government entities are too slack to address the problem on our traffic, maybe the Honiara City Council should be entrusted with such task?

At least they get things moving, even if in a small way.

Congratulations are in order to the Lord Mayor and his Team.

Hou briefed on undersea cable progress

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0
PM Hou and his officials meeting with the Australian delegation at the OPMC.

PRIME Minister Rick Houenipwela met with a high-level delegation from the Australia Government at the Office of the Prime Minister & Cabinet (OPMC) yesterday.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Hou reiterated his Government’s commitment in seeing this project progress further.

Hou was very impressed by the project’s progressive developments when briefed by the Australian delegation.

The Australian Government is committed to majority fund the project that would be a first for Solomon Islands, which is currently reliant on expensive and unreliable satellite communications.

The Australian delegation led by Deputy Secretary Penny Williams met with the Prime Minister to brief him on options to land the cable in Australia.

The delegation also met with other senior members of Government as part of their visit.

“I am pleased the study has found a number of solutions that would provide Solomon Islands with a high-speed internet connection from Australia at a competitive price,” Ms Williams said.

“Supplying Solomon Islanders with faster, more reliable and more accessible internet has the potential to bring about substantial economic and development benefits.”

The Solomon Islands Government is expected to formally consider the scoping study findings before the end of April, with project sustainability underway in the second half of this year.

The Australian delegation and telecommunications provider Vocus are currently here to present the findings of a scoping study into the new undersea cable from Australia to Solomon Islands.

–OPMC PRESS

Hou wants more laws this year

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0
Prime Minister Hon Rick Hou during press conference with media on Monday

By Gary Hatigeva

PRIME Minister, Rick Hounipwela has urged the Bills and Legislation Committee (BLC) to quickly convene and start looking into the remaining government proposed legislations that are now ready for BLC deliberation.

Prime Minister Hou made this call when moving the special motion of adjournment for parliament on Monday after weeks of intense debate and scrutiny into the 2018 Budget, where he also urged the Committee to put high priorities into the bills.

Hou said he was hoping for the anti corruption and the whistle-blowers protection bills would have been debated in the first set of sittings however, with the unavailability of the required detailed reports from the BLC, it was not possible for parliament to deal with those legislations

“As I have outlined before on this floor in terms of the government’s 2018 legislative calendar, we have quite a number of bills yet to conclude this year, which feature quite prominently in the current government’s legislative calendar,” the Prime Minister added

Hou though agreed that a few of the legislations are yet to be submitted to the BLC, but assured that most of them are now ready for the Bills Committee’s deliberation.

“Sir I must stress that these are important legislations that require the BLC’s utmost priory as our people are waiting for these legislations to be finalised as soon as possible.

“I therefore, urge the Bills Committee to convene as quickly as possible to enable them to facilitate the hearings required by law for these bills to be submitted,” the PM added.

He also stressed that in an attempt to move things forward, the government is certain parliament’s adjournment to July 18, 2018 should provide the committee with time to deal with the bills which are currently before it.

However, when responding to the call, Chairman of the Bills and Legislation Committee and Member of Parliament for Aoke/Langalanga, Matthew Wale strongly emphasised for the government not to delay all its submissions until only a week or days left to the resumption of parliament on July 18 before submitting.

Wale explained that this is to avoid any unnecessary pressures on both parties and so as causing unnecessary breaks like it had happened at the start of this year’s sittings.

“Give those bills earlier so we have enough time to go through them, because of some of the processes involved, we definitely would need ample time to properly go through before they can be presented to parliament.

“We will do it as it is required of the Committee and we understand that.

“We want to work, we do recognise that this is the final year of this house and still have a lot to do and we want to make sure we get it done on time,” the BLC and Aoke/Langalanga MP assured.

It is understood that the Electoral Bills were submitted at the eve of parliament’s passing of the 2018 and the BLC Chairman also assured that his committee will this week, begin looking into it including the others that will be given in the course of the adjournment.

He however clarified that as for the Ant-corruption Bill, because it had already made it in parliament but was later withdrawn, like any new bills, the committee will have to start with the process of it all over again.

Island Sun also understands that bills set to be submitted to the BLC include the Anti-corruption Bill 2017, the Constitutional Amendment Dual Citizenship Bill 2017, the Citizen Bill 2017, the Constitutional (Amendment) (Electoral Reform) Bill 2018 and the Electoral Reform Bill 2018.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister confirmed that amongst the list of legislation lined up, the government has already submitted the Electoral Bill and added that they are also looking forward to reports on the Political Parties Integrity Act, which he suggested needs a few amendments.

SI students safe from TC Keni

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
-
0

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

SOLOMON Islands students studying in Fiji say they are safe after Tropical Cyclone Keni swooped over the country this week.

There has been no report of any Solomon Islands student injured during the cyclone.

According to the all staff and student email distribution at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji yesterday evening, the weather has improved as TC Keni is rapidly moving away from Fiji.

“Restricted movement advisory to all residential Staff and students within Laucala Campus issued at 1pm for Laucala Campus is hereby lifted from 5pm,” contained in the email.

“Please exercise caution when moving throughout campus at this time and report any hazards identified to E&I Supervisor on Call Mobile 9927202.”

“Also note that the Cafeteria Building which was open to receive evacuees is now closed, given that the weather has improved.”

“Be advised that bus services and shops out of the campus within Suva area remain closed until further notice by authorities.”

On further advisory in USP Fiji Campus reopening, SIG students have confirmed receiving confirmation that everything will be back to normal today.

“Classes will resume and working class people will resume back for work,” said SI students.

Most businesses were closed this week in Fiji purposely to not take any chances against TC Keni.

1...1,4371,4381,439...1,673Page 1,438 of 1,673