By EDDIE OSIFELO
MINISTER of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification, Bradley Tovosia admits corruption being practiced by Members of Parliament.
His admission reinforced the findings of the Global Corruption Barometer Pacific 2021 released last month by Transparency International that Members of Parliament were rated top as most corrupt by Pacific countries.
Speaking at the Sine Die motion in Parliament yesterday, Tovosia, also MP for East Guadalcanal, said there was notion to change the government and the Prime Minister because of corruption.
“In Parliament we talk to ourselves that we don’t do anything for Solomon Islands.
“We are corrupt. We change leadership,” he said.
Tovosia asked who in the House is not corrupt.
“Who is not corruption, tell me and stand up.
“When I decided to join politics, these are the elements of politicians whether you like it or not,” he said.
Tovosia urged the 49 MPs including him to stand up and do the right thing for the country.
“Let us stand up and tell the truth.
“I don’t like to hide it. We must change now and we used people to stand up and defend us or use this kind of activity happening here,” he said.
Global Corruption Barometer Pacific 2021 found the institutions being labelled as most corrupt by pacific countries were the Members of Parliament who were rated at the top, followed by staff within the office of the Prime Minister or President, police, business executives and companies extracting natural resources.
“This is no doubt a problem that is continually experienced by citizens of pacific island countries because they experience it, witness it, observe it happening and have been victim of it and having had instances of such with those corrupt institutions for decades now.
“In the case of Solomon Islands, most of the Members of Parliament (MPs) have become highly criticized and do not have good relations with voters because of allegations of abuse of funds against the MP or unfair treatment by MPs towards voters,” the report states.
The Global Corruption Barometer (GCB)- Pacific presents the most extensive set of public opinion data on perceptions and experiences of corruption in the region.
In many of these countries and territories, the survey constitutes the very first attempt to gather important data about corruption and its prevalence in different countries across the region.
This year GCB surveyed more than 6000 people in 10 pacific countries namely, Fiji, French Polynesia, The Federated State of Micronesia, Kiribati, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea (PNG) Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.
The results show that a majority of respondents think corruption is a problem in both the Government and the private sectors, despite government efforts to control it.
