BY ALFRED PAGEPITU

GIZO

PEOPLE of Western and Choiseul are concerned over the delay in the election dates for the Western and Choiseul provinces.

They have calling on the national government and the electoral commission to set dates for the provinces’ elections.

Island Sun understands that rumours are circulating in Gizo speculating various dates, and intending candidates are beginning their campaigning games in their wards.

A Mr Willie from Gizo said “It has been delay and nothing has been heard on at the top level for not quickly set the election date.

“While the calling of Western and Choiseul Provincial election is partly a matter of political judgment and timing.

“We are calling on constitutional and legislative framework who governs the electoral timetable and process to quickly officially set the final election date for people of Western and Choiseul.”

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

Auki

A man has died after falling from a truck at Kware Bridge on the border of West Kware’ae and West Fataleka on Sunday afternoon.

The man was rushed to Fauabu rural health clinic but later died due to his injuries.

Malaita Provincial Police Commander, Mr Timothy Apaesi told this paper in an interview that the man was among 13 people on the truck when the accident happened.

He said the truck belongs to the Lion Heart Company and was transporting fuel from Auki on the north road direction.

“The decease board the truck somewhere round Auki and believed to have been under the influence of liquor during the time.

“When he got onto the truck he sat on one of the drum of fuel behind the truck.

“They went until they reached Kware Bridge when the truck came into a pothole just before entering the bridge.

“When the truck went down into a pothole and got up, the truck bounced and the man flew off the truck,” Mr Apaesi said.

He said the man landed on the bridge and due to serious injuries sustained he was rushed to Fauabu rural health clinic but died later in the evening.

Apaesi confirmed that the other passengers did not receive any injury from the incident.

He said the driver of the Tipa-truck has been identified to be a 25-year-old male.

He said no arrest is yet made into the accident as Auki police is still looking thoroughly into the nature of the accident.

Apaesi said investigation into the incident is still ongoing.

BY ALFRED PAGEPITU

GIZO

WESTERN provincial government is working on business ordinances for its next supplementary budget 2018 to 2019.

Western Provincial Secretary Jeffrey Wickham told this to Island Sun Gizo yesterday, but said that time is also a factor they are running against with this endeavour.

“We will soon work on with the provincial government executive and stakeholders to re-enforce province business ordinances.

“After this discussion, we will come out with viable ordinances to re-enforce Western Province business ordinances.”

He said the Western provincial government will soon collect levy from wharfs, church jetties, advertisements and billboards

Mr Wickham explained that they will look at business for indigenous business houses, private sectors, NGOs and companies to re-enforce the ordinance.

He said that the approval for the policy is expected this full assembly meeting for WPG this month.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE Court has adjourned the case against a man charged for violent behaviour to allow the prosecution to respond to the representation made by the defence lawyer.

The court was told that the prosecution has just received the representation and needs time to look through before updating the court on the status of the case.

This is the case against Mathias Ngalir who is faced with counts of threatening violence with intent to intimidate, damage property, trespass at night, uses threatening words in public and going armed in public.

Therefore the accused is further remanded in custody until March 23 for mention and prosecution to update the court the representation made by the defence.

Daniel Kwalai of the Public Solicitor’s Office represents the accused in court.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

THE former permanent secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development Henry Murray testified in court yesterday.

Mr Murray and his wife are accused of fraudulent activities, and defence began their turn yesterday after prosecution finished with theirs.

Murry had been with the MID for more than 20 years; he started working there as an apprentice and made his way up through to the permanent secretary post till his termination in November 2017.

“I was appointed as Director Mechanical Division for four years and in 2014 I resigned and when the PS post was advertised in 2015 I applied and was shortlisted with other candidates,” Murray told the court.

After all interviews were made he then was appointed on August 31, 2015 for the PS post of MID.

He told the court yesterday during examination when his defence lawyer questioned him about the business Krash Transport and Marketing and he said that it is a registered family business like any other family owned businesses and has been involved in hiring its vehicles with Government.

Murray also confirmed that he is one of the Directors of that business, and later in 2016 he transferred that directorship to Soni Aife.

The Murrays were charged in relation to an allegation relating to a series of offences alleged between 2014 and 2017 in relation to multiple payments of motor vehicle hire charges to a company that police alleged was registered to Murray and his wife.

The value of those payments is estimated to the excess of 1.1 million dollars, and as a result of that they both face a range of serious charges.

Prosecution alleged that those payments were allegedly made through cheques and electronic fund transfers, which were deposited into their ANZ account in the name of Krash Transport and Marketing.

Lazarus Kwaiga of L & L lawyers is representing both defendants.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

DEFENCE lawyer representing a woman who is charged with one count of larceny and embezzlement has raised concern over the delay of the case.

This is the case against Enith Fairamoa who was alleged of stealing more than SBD20,000 from the Solomon Islands Government in 2015.

The court was told yesterday that the case was already set for trial on April 5 to 13 this year.

Police Prosecutor Lyndon Adifaka said the appearance was for an interim mention, but in regards to the trial date the prosecution is not certain whether the trial date will remain or will be vacated as the prosecutor in carriage of the case will be in Lata for the court circuit on the week of the trial.

Meanwhile the defence lawyer told the court that they have no issues with what the prosecution raised, however voiced the concern that the accused has been appearing in court since 2015.

Last year a trial date also vacated due to prosecution witnesses’ not available and such delay is of concern to their client, the defence lawyer told the court.

Principal Magistrate Ricky Iomea then adjourn the case to March 29 so that the prosecution can arrange for another prosecutor to take on the case if the prosecutor in carriage will not be available on that date for trial.

The accused Enith Fairamoa was charged with one count of larceny and embezzlement.

Prosecution alleged that the woman had stolen SBD28,819.44 from the Solomon Islands Government on May 12, 2015. She committed the offence when she was working with the Ministry of Finance and Treasury.

Police Prosecution Service prosecutes the case in court.

By Gary Hatigeva

THE seventh meeting of the 10th Parliament House was again forced to adjourn all sittings for this week and is expected to resume on Monday, March 26, 2018.

This was voted on in a motion of special adjournment moved by the Prime Minister, Rick Houenipwela with reasons to allow the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) a little more time to finalise matters of the 2018 National Budget.

The motion of special adjournment faced no objections from both the Opposition and Independent groups but received heavy criticism from the Member of Parliament for Aoke/Langalanga, Matthew Wale who earlier called for an amendment to the original special adjournment motion.

Wale on the floor yesterday, expressed his disappointments in the Prime Minister, on how he has been handling matters of important interest to the government, the country and responsible bodies of parliament as far as dealing with the budget is concerned.

During the earlier motion of special adjournment over a fortnight ago, the Aoke/Langalanga MP and also member of the PAC, Matthew Wale suggested for the Prime Minister to extend the proposed date for parliament’s resumption to the 26th and not 19th of March 2018 as projected.

“But because the PM never wants to lose face and don’t want to be seen stepped on, that is why he never accepted that suggestions for the amendment.

“Because the documents Mr Speaker were never delayed from our side,” the PAC Member stressed on the floor of parliament before the vote for special adjournment was made.

He added that the documents only reached the committee on March 12, 2018 to enable the Committee to begin inquiry proper, something the PAC Chair also confirmed while making his contribution to the special adjournment motion.

He revealed that the Prime Minister in his ignorance rubbished the PAC request and a request from the Auditor General who asked for an extra three days to go through all the documents to furnish wholesome advice to the committee.

He further revealed that the committee also received a letter from the Prime Minister, which Wale described ‘seeming silly’.

In the PM’s letter, the Aoke/Langalanga MP quoted, saying that nothing can hold back the government from proceeding with debates of the second reading of the Appropriation Bill without the report of the PAC based on standing order 69.

While supporting the special adjournment motion, Wale replied that the Prime Minister was very much against his own words as it is clearly stated in the said standing order.

Based on the PM’s letter, Wale also quoted from Standing Order 69 but cap 1 (g) which explained that a report must be presented to Parliament in such a way that the report may inform Members prior to the Parliamentary debate thereon of the background to the Draft Estimates draw attention to those matters which the Committee feels should be the subject for such Parliamentary debate.

“And I found that very odd from a former chairman of Public Accounts Committee and a champion for good governance a champion for parliamentary of oversight of executive governments.

“What the PM stated in the letter is uncalled for and unnecessary which is almost as if it is a threat to the PAC and this one I feel is not in the spirit of our parliamentary democracy.

“We’re not shirking our responsibilities and we take our responsibility seriously and we want to do a good job of the important tasks that are before us in dealing with the budget.”

Meanwhile, the PAC Chairman and MP for East Honiara, Douglas Ete shared similar sentiments with the Aoke/Langalanga MP, however thanked the PM for allowing the committee a little more time to finish all its inquiries into the budget.

“The reason I wrote to the Prime Minister for the adjournment is because the papers that came not from the Office of the Prime Minister but from all the budget departments and we did not receive the development budget until 12 March.

“I think before becoming PM he was once upon a time a part of this committee and he would know very well what the PAC thinking,” the PAC Chairman said.

He added that with the given additional time, the PAC will certainly put in a full report when parliament resumes on March 26.

“We will not be putting in a half report, we will certainly put in a full report and with this few remaining days allowed will be very adequate for PAC to complete this report.

“It will be a good report in this fiscal year,” the relieved Public Accounts Committee chair stressed.

By Alfred Sasako

THE Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) and the Government are helping Pan Oceania Bank (POB) to find a corresponding bank overseas between now and June, CBSI Governor Denton Rarawa has told Island Sun newspaper.

Mr Rarawa was responding to a hypothetical question on what would happen if POB does not find a corresponding bank by June – the deadline set by the Reserve Bank of New York for CBSI to cease its relationship with POB or face being blacklisted.

Island Sun broke the story this week.

CBSI had been acting as a corresponding bank for all POB transactions in United States’ currency, possibly since 2014 when POB was established in Honiara.

POB was established largely to handle all logging accounts since Westpac ended its operation in Honiara around the same time.

In a brief statement, Rarawa confirmed that CBSI had been assisting POB on a temporary basis, something the Reserve Bank of New York said was a commercial activity.

CBSI risked being blacklisted if it ignored the June deadline. Such a situation would have catastrophic consequences on the nation’s economy. Sixty per cent of government revenue comes from logging.

“Of course we do not want to reach that situation at the end of June, so POB is working very hard to find other correspondent banks.

“CBSI and Government are also working very hard to assist POB find alternative arrangements. We are hopeful that we will come up with a solution and avert this potentially adverse situation,” Rarawa said.

Meanwhile a local logger has questioned the quality of CBSI’s due diligence when it was looking into POB’s application to establish here.

Charles Karaori told Island Sun that the potential catastrophic situation calls into question the ability of CBSI personnel to foresee the likely scenario in the future.

“This whole situation would have been avoided if there’s quality in the type of due diligence being conducted by CBSI.

“I would also call on CBSI to disclose to the public how much money in terms of fees CBSI received over the years for acting as a corresponding bank for all USD transactions,” Mr Karaori said.