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.

By Alfred Sasako

BUSINESSMAN Patrick Wong – the man who is waiting on Government to pay him $50 million for the Hell’s Point waste land in east Honiara – was never an investor, a Management Agreement signed in 2003 has revealed.

Instead, Mr Wong was recruited by the Board of the Copra Export Marketing Authority (CEMA) to assist in managing Russell Islands Plantation Estates Ltd’s (RIPEL) business and selling its products.

Island Sun has obtained a copy of the Agreement, signed on February 27, 2003.

Representatives of RIPEL and Pacific Management Services (SI) Ltd (PMSL initialled the Agreement. PMSL was established as a vehicle Wong and associates used to manage RIPEL,

The Foreign Investment Division of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry Immigration and Labour confirmed yesterday that PMSL’s registration is now overdue.

“It has not been renewed for the last financial year, which ended October 2017,” records show. Goh and Partners used to renew PMSL’s registration by way of filing annual returns.

There are four parts to the Management Agreement signed fifteen years ago.

Part A says:

“RIPEL is in the business of producing and exporting copra, coconut oil, copra cake, coconuts, animal meat, cocoa and other similar commodities (the products);

Part B says:

“PMSL, through its directors, servants, agents and employees, has experience in managing business in the export trade and selling the Products internationally (the Services);

Part C:

“RIPEL wishes to engage the Services of PMSL to assist in managing its business and in selling its Products; and Part D which says:

“PMSL is prepared to make the Services available on the terms and conditions set out in this Agreement.”

The $50 million payout ordered by the Court of Appeal has raised controversies in both the legal and government circles. Some say Wong should never collect a cent from the land because he never owned or developed the land.

Secondly, they say Wong’s involvement in both RIPEL and Levers Solomon Ltd ceased when the CEMA Board was wound up.

“He was just an employee, never an investor,” some say.

The Foreign Investment Division said it used this argument to reject the company’s registration application because Wong was never an investor.

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

Auki

COMMUNTIES in West Are’are are in desperate need of police presence in their communities.

The call follows an increase in anti-social behaviour in the area.

Catechist of Porepore local church, Mr Joe Naitoro made the report saying men, women and children do not feel safe in their homes.

He said majority of youths in ward 25 where his village is are engaged in marijuana and kwaso.

“Youths even elderly people when they drink kwaso they have no respect to the communities.

“They swear at people, have no respect to people’s properties and to the chiefs and elders in the communities.

“Other anti-social activities like fighting, stealing and etc are now becoming worse in their communities.

“Another odd thing experienced was before men only known for drinking of beers in rural communities, but now both young girls and boys combine to do it,” Naitoro said.

Naitoro said they want regular presence of police in their communities to crack down on the anti-social behaviours.

He also added that they want community policing in their communities so that they can work together with police on those areas.

In an interview with PPC Malaita, Mr Timothy Apaesi said that his office is aware of the issues going on in the province.

He said they continue to do the best of what they can to ensure law and order must be respected and upheld in the province.

However, he explained that resource is one major problem usually faced to get them down to the issues on the ground.

By Gary Hatigeva

THE Korean Water contracted to build and operate the Tina Hydro Project in East Guadalcanal is revealed to have pumped in a total of $20 Million US dollars as its contribution into the project based on the investment structures for the power project.

This, according to the Minister for Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification and Member of Parliament for East Guadalcanal, Bradley Tovusia is a 50 percent cut to the original outline in the structure.

When responding to a supplementary question by the former Finance Minister and MP for Marovo, Snyder Rini who asked about the Korean company’s share of contribution into the project, Minister Tovusia explained that Korean Water was supposed to give 40 million as initiated.

“But with the interest that the company will raise its tariff, the government has decided for the investor to pump in only 20 million US Dollars.

“And that,” the Minister added, “would reduce tariff and with the idea to get additional funds from the country’s donor and development partners will see to the rest of the cost to ensure the project is eventuated,” Minister Tovusia added.

Based on figures revealed on the floor of parliament regarding finances involved in the project, a total of over $100 million USD is expected to be borrowed from international commercial institutions, which includes a total of around 87 million soft loan from GCF, EDCF with over 30 million, World Bank with a soft loan of around 34.7 million.

Meanwhile, documents are being finalized on the agreement to also get an additional soft loan of around 18 Million US dollars from the Asia Development Bank.

The Australian government on the other according to the Finance Minister, is also contributed around $17 million for the project, which includes the construction of access to the project site.

But when questioned over who will shoulder the cost of the highlighted loan repayments, the Minister assured that the project, once it is up and running and starts making profits, which he is confident it will, all the costs outlined will be paid by the operation.

With intentions and proposals including the structure of investment for the project, which according to both ministers strive to provide supply power at the lowest rates as possible, the Member of Parliament for Aoke/Langalanga, Matthew Wale commended the government for it and stressed the need to see that the project is operational for the sake of the people.

The Aoke/Langalanga MP expressed his appreciations on the government’s approach to get Korean Water to go as low as possible with its costs of tariff and urged them to also consider lowering all costs involved in the initiation of what he described as a very important project as far as development in the country is concerned.