CELSUS TALIFILU
Brisbane
AVIATION Permanent Secretary Moses Virivolomo’s attempt to denounce what was said about his conduct in Auki is a desperate attempt to misconstrue real facts that were supplied to the premier from his executive in Auki.
My article was based on facts that the executive communicated to the premier and the premier further relayed them to me.
Though the premier and I were not present in Auki during the meeting, it is not difficult to get the facts from the executive in Auki.
Thanks to modern technology for allowing that to take place with platforms like WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and others.
We are no longer living in the 60s or the 70s so that communication would be difficult.
Even the astronauts are video calling from the international space station. So much for a PS that is responsible for Communication.
The executive has passed on the information regarding how the PS conducted the presentation and the discussions on the Fiu Bridge and they were unapologetic in describing how the PS was conducting the presentation.
It was a clear case of someone trying to coerce the executive into accepting the NSC choice which was clear from the presentation and discussion of a Chinese construction firm.
The premier believed in his Executive and what they communicated to him from Auki after their meeting with PS Virivolomo and his team.
What appeared in the article about PS Virivolomo was plain facts.
According to the Premier, he said that “If I am to believe whose story is factual; of course my Executive is the one that I am believing. The reason for this is simple. We have been together and have been truthful to each other under the solidary of MARA”.
It is unbelievable that the PS even went as far as saying that I made a claim that the Ministry has already awarded the contract to the Chinese Company.
Anyone who has not read my article would falsely be compelled to believe such ugly and twisted liars from the PS.
What the PS is doing is a clear case of using language aimed at creating a story out of thin air.
If one reads my article from the beginning to the end, you would not be able to find what is asserted by PS Virivolomo.
That I claimed the ministry has already awarded the contract to a Chinese firm. I never said that in my article.
The terminology that was used in the article was “Earmarked” not “Awarded”.
Earmarked would mean being proposed to whereas already warded is a done deal. The PS must stop from telling twisted liars to the public of Malaita.
PS Virivolomo continued to make further false statements and made them look like I was making these claimed.
For example, the PS said that the project was executed according to the World Bank procurement guidelines and not SIG procurements guidelines as I was alleging.
I did not allege that the procurement was conducted under SIG procurement guidelines. This is again unbelievable that the PS was not ashamed of saying such an untruthful statement.
In fact, in my article, this is what I actually said. “The MPG is watching this situation closely and the premier had already written to the World Bank for clarifications on its procurement processes that SIG is using for the Fiu Bridge”.
Where did I say the SIG procurement guideline was allegedly used?
Clearly, this was a deliberate and deceptive statement aimed to deceive the public to believe that I was the one who has not been telling the truth.
Which is totally false. The public must therefore be on the lookout for such manipulative and misrepresentation of facts by high government officers and their offices.
There is further manipulation of facts by the PS in regards to this story.
For example, the PS said that I personally emailed the World Bank directly making allegations of malpractice in the procurement.
This is again an outright misrepresentation of facts.
The email I sent was not a personal email from me. I was given instructions by the premier to send that email and especially the attached letter from the premier to the World Bank.
The PS was cc’d in the email and the email was so clear. Nothing personally from me to the World Bank.
As one can see from the email that is provided at the end of this article, I have not made any demands for retendering as alleged by PS Virivololo.
These are nothing but made-up statements to turn attention from the real issue.
The real issue was that his actions in Auki were an attempt to coerce the MPG Executive to agree to their proposal. That however did not happen.
This is a copy of the first email that I sent as instructed by the premier. Without the name of the World Bank officer on:
13 May 2021
Dear……………………..
I have been given clear instructions by the Premier of Malaita Province, Hon Daniel Suidani to send you this very important email.
Attached to this email is the letter of concern from the Premier and his government regarding the SIRAP program and its component in Malaita Province.
Grateful if you could confirm receipt of this email.
Kind regards
Celsus Talifilu
This is the second email that I sent, again under the instruction of the premier.
Dear ……………
See below is the email that the premier had sent to you. He was not sure whether the email had reached you or not and have asked me to send it again.
Regards
Celsus
Where in these two emails have I demanded the World Bank for a retender? There was none because I never said such a thing in any emails to the World Bank.
As to the PS of MID he did not even attend the meeting with the Executive at the assembly chamber.
According to the Executive members in Auki, the PS of MID was late to attend the meeting with the executive.
When he showed up, the meeting was over. He only joined the Executive for the lunch.
This is from a man who professes to be a Malaitan yet failed his responsibility by not attending the meeting he was purposely there in Auki for.
It is surprising that such a character still has the audacity to come out loud in the media and yet failed to attend the meeting.
In fact in the exchange of emails between the World Bank, PS of MID said this in one of his emails. “Thank you so much Celsus for your email. Just to remind your good self that our meeting in Auki is just a normal meeting business as usual.
“We have decided to hold this meeting out of Honiara and we agreed to hold it in Auki purposely to visit the roads and see for ourselves the very poor conditions of the Malaita roads.
“We should have held this meeting elsewhere, however, visiting the roads and bridges is paramount to this meeting.”
Contrasting what the MID PS said in this email and this public statement, see for yourself the difference.
I hope they did as PS MID stated in his email “Visiting the roads”. After all, he was late for the all-important meeting.
The outburst from the two PSs seemed unfortunately the work of some other people.
It’s time the public must be made aware that there is an elephant in the room.
