By Mike Puia

THE International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which deals with world maritime, is coming next year.

IMO external auditors are interested in assessing how well this country is implementing obligations under maritime conventions it signed.

Despite being a maritime nation and a member of the IMO, this country has not been doing well in the international maritime community.

According to the Solomon Islands Maritime Safety Administration (SIMSA) Director, Captain Tim Harris, the IMO auditors are also interested in assessing how well this country is implementing the amendments of these conventions.

IMO member countries, including Solomon Islands, have 580 obligations.

As for Solomon Islands, SIMSA has conducted an audit from 2016 to 2017 and found out that this country only satisfied 10 percent of these obligations.

The last convention this country signed is the Civil Liability Convention it signed in1992.

Mr Harris said there are important conventions, like the Fund Convention 1971 and Protocol 1992, this country has not signed.

He said these two conventions gives this country access to huge funding without costing the country anything.

The convention allows a signature country to access millions in an event there is an oil spill.

Harris said the IMO auditors are interested to look at the legal system in the country, the work of Parliament with regards to maritime legislation, the work of the Attorney General Chamber, the work of the High Court, the condition of the industry and ships and how well the SIMSA is implementing the content of the conventions.

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

A tree grower at Sirobesi in Northwest Choiseul makes a call again for the Forestry Division to assist tree growers around the province in order to sell their trees.

Mr Francis Qoloni on behalf of other tree growers said it has been a very long time now since the Forestry Division assured to assist them in finding buyers for their trees.

“We call on them to come fulfil their assurance in order for us to earn some money from these trees. Assisting us to export our trees will be good as well,” said Mr Qoloni.

It is understood that tree growers of Choiseul Province have planted hundreds of acres of Teak, Eucalyptus and other species of trees.

Attempts for comment from the Forestry Division in Honiara were not possible yesterday.

POLICE in Honiara are searching for a suspect in an alleged armed robbery incident during which a businessman was wounded in the Point Cruz area in Central Honiara early morning February 28, 2018.

It is alleged the victim was attacked with a bush knife at about 7.30 am this morning at his business premises.

It was further alleged the victim sustained severe injuries on both of his hands and mouth as a result of the knife attack.

He was rushed to the National Referral Hospital by his employees and is currently undergoing medical treatment.

Honiara City Provincial Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Alfred Uiga says, “The man allegedly involved in the incident escaped after the incident but my officers who are investigating the incident have some good leads to follow up on. I must thank witnesses to the alleged incident for giving police the information.

“I want to appeal to members of the public who were at the vicinity of the alleged armed robbery to come forward with any other information that will assist the police with its investigation.”

The Honiara Central Police Station can be contacted on phones 22999 or 23304. Members of the public with information can also call Police National Communication Centre on 23666 or toll free 999.

–POLICE MEDIA

By Alfred Sasako

THE United Democratic Party (UDP) says its senior MPs, former Finance Minister, Snyder Rini and former Development Planning and Aid Coordination Minister Danny Philip have never left the Party, contrary to an article in the Island Sun newspaper yesterday.

Island Sun was informed on Tuesday night that UDP Members in the previous DCC Government have resigned their membership and have joined Kadere Party in a new Alliance formed over the weekend.

It was on the basis of this information that the Secretary of the UDP was sent the following text message at 7pm on Tuesday night. It was in respect of the new Kadere-UDP Alliance, allegedly formed over the weekend, not about events of last November.

My text message simply read:

“Bro, sorry to trouble you. I want confirmation that ALL UDP members have resigned their UDP membership and have merged with Kadere.”

At one minute past 7, UDP Secretary was prompt as a torpedo, responding thus: “Yes bro … I received the letters.”

How many, I asked at 2 minutes past 7. There was no response until at 09.03am the next day when I received the following text message.

“Bro the news you released this morning is factually incorrect. The resignations I refer to above were received in November last year when Soga lost the PMship. Danny and Snyder never resigned and are with UDP in Opposition. Bro me barava concerned na about the report as it now implicates two senior UDP MPs.”

“The article authored by Mr Sasako and published in the Island Sun newspaper is false and misleading and the UDP therefore calls on the daily newspaper and Mr Sasako to retract and apologise for the news item,” UDP Secretary Barnabas Henson said in a statement issued yesterday.

The article said Hon Rini and Hon Philip have resigned from the UDP over the weekend and joined the Kadere Party.

“UDP remains intact under the Opposition Coalition and Hon Rini and Hon Philip remain members of the party. They will be leading the party into the next general elections. The party’s current parliamentary wing consists of five (5) Members of Parliament. They are Hon Philip, Hon Rini, Hon Fugui, Hon Maneka, and Hon Iduri,” he said.

Mr Henson said the party also wants reporters writing any stories to do with it or its members to contact the party Secretary for proper verification before publishing them to avoid misleading the public with false or fabricated information.

He said the UDP sees the article as a direct attack on its integrity and that of its senior parliamentarians and therefore calls on Island Sun and Mr Sasako to immediately correct the media report.

KADERE Party has rejected claims of a new alliance formed with United Democratic Party.

A front page story in the Island Sun yesterday claimed that a new alliance Kadere-United Democratic Party was formed following a series of meetings over the weekend.

“This news is misleading. Island Sun must stop its campaign in trying to disturb the Government. Stop misleading the public,” the statement said.

The statement by Kadere said they remain committed and supportive of the current coalition that makes up the SIDCCG.

“There is no other coalition other than the current coalition that makes up SIDCCG consisting of Kadere-DAP-Peoples First Party,” it said.

The statement clarified that UDP is a party in the Opposition Group and Kadere has no alliance with the political party concerned.

Meanwhile, Kadere Party in its statement has urged the media to be responsible in its reporting.

“Media has an obligation to the people and that is to practice responsibility in providing truthful and accurate information for public awareness and not to try and create disharmony amongst the Government and its people,” it said.

Kadere has also reiterated that its executive and members will continue to support the leadership of the Hou Government to fulfill its policy priorities.

–KADERE PRESS

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

RESIDENTS of Taro Station and citizens of Choiseul Province as a whole raise concern on what they term as usual unfairness over selection for contract Tenders.

They say it is the same group of contractors who are usually awarded with contracts while others never succeed when doing bids over and over again.

“Contractors and citizens of the province are now calling on the Choiseul Provincial Ministry of Works and the Tender Board Committee to be fair in screening and awarding Tenders,” said Mr Nerio Ulemiki, the media coordinator for Christ the King Parish at Voruvoru.

The Provincial Capacity Development Advisor of Choiseul Provincial Government Korolyn Zutu however rebuffs the query that it is the same contractors that are usually given contracts.

She said Tender applications will close on March 12 as they will at the same time open tenders and have a Technical Evaluation Committee to go through all the forms to screen which applications fit the criteria.

“After this procedure then the Tender Board will do awarding to contractors from recommendations,” said Zutu.

“So the procedure is not based on a one man decision to be biased. Most people do not understand the process. It is a long process in which we do not just receive applications and do automatic selections.”

In support according to the Provincial Secretary (PS) of Choiseul Province Mr Jeffery Pakipota, provincial projects awarded to contractors depend on the evaluation process.

“Applications are guided by very strict criteria’s going through committee’s evaluation procedure for screenings and recommendations.

“Some of the guidelines through the screening process are applications must be valid, responsive and bids are acceptably reasonable.”

By Mike Puia

ELDERS from a community in the Henderson area, East Honiara, are disappointed at how police is ignoring their reports.

One of these elders, Junior Tangi, claimed he made a report to the Henderson police but they failed to show up.

According to Mr Tangi, the matter they reported is a serious matter that involved a man producing illegal home-made spirit (kwaso) in their community.

Tangi, a former police officer himself, says this failure of duty by the police officers at the Henderson station undermines the reputation of the RSIPF.

He says it also is an indicator of the force’s incapability to deal with matters of concern of the community.

He said police have been going around promoting community support toward the work of the police but police’s recent non-response is frustrating.

“We want to support the work our police is doing- this is why we reported this matter. Since it failed to respond, we might as well decline to report anything case to the police,” Tangi said.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

PRINCIPAL Magistrate Fatimah Taeburi has raised concerns over the long delay in allocating a lawyer for an accused.

She said several times public solicitors (PSO) have appeared in court, they keep repeating the same excuse of not having received any instruction to the case, therefore assuring to relay any court instruction to their superiors.

This has been their excuse for eight months – since July last year.

The accused is Gordon Mark, in the case against him and fellow accused Nelson Maeta and John Nelson Ross.

This case is pending trial as Mr Mark is still without a lawyer to represent him.

Mark told court that he has visited the PSO several times, and the recent visit was just last week, and still no lawyer has been allocated to represent him.

The trio are charged in relation to the allegation between November 1 and 30, 2011 where the two accused and other men obtained more than $300,000 by selling the victim fake gold bars.

Police alleged the men approached the victim, Hypolite Taremae, who is the former Minister of Truth Reconciliation and Peace, at his office at Anthony Saru Building.

Police said that the men went to see the alleged victim with the intention to obtained money through false pretence and also lure him into believing their made up stories.

The men and others allegedly told Mr Taremae that they were from Weather-coast in Guadalcanal. And in the coming days a reconciliation ceremony will take place in their village but they did not have enough money.

It was at that time they showed a picture of a gold bar to Taremae which they claimed to be in their possession, Police said.

They allegedly said they have some gold bars which were stolen by the former Guadalcanal war-lord Harold Keke that was taken from the former Ross Mining during the height of the ethnic tension.

The men also allegedly showed Taremae a certification letter from the Director of Mines that confirmed that the gold bars were gold and worth six million dollars.

Having heard from the accused and seen all the documents, Taremae was convinced.

Then on various occasions between July and November 2011, the accused men allegedly handed Taremae three gold bars in return they received $300,000.

The victim however, later found that the men lied to him and he took the “gold bars” to a dealer who confirmed they were fakes.

The bars were made from lead metal and painted with gold colour paint.

It was also alleged that the men threatened the case officer who was investigating their case that they will shoot him with a gun.

The allegation further said that the men claimed that they still have guns and will hunt for the case officer everywhere and will kill him.