In 2003, former Prime Minister, Sir Allan Kemakeza, was asked in a commercial television interview in Australia about how secure his government was, given serious allegations of corruption involving his ministers.
At the time, Australia had just approved an intervention plan, commonly known as the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands [RAMSI] to tackle law and order problems in the country.
His answer was brief, swift and to the point.
“No one is above the law,” Kemakeza said.
In a way, the essence of his message is that the long arm of the law had no respect for status or standing in the community. He was true to his word.
Today, Kemakeza is behind bars following his conviction last month of an ethnic tension-related charge.
In 2006, Kemakeza’s Minister for Health and Medical Services, Benjamin Una, was convicted on corruption charges involving some $25,000 in public funds. He spent time behind bars and has since been released. Today, Una is a free man.
In June, this year, then MP for East Honiara, Charles Dausabea, once a police minister in Manasseh Sogavare’s government, was sentenced to 18 months in jail on corruption charges involving some $40,000 of public funds. He is due to be released about this time next year.
Manoah Sogha was about 60 years old when he was convicted and sent to a Solomon Islands jail for about a year. His crime: Not accounting for SB$5 [about AU$0.75 cents] in school funds.
Sogha, who died last year shortly after he was released from jail, was chairman of the board of Kesao Primary School in the Kia district of Isabel Province. According to relatives, the crime was committed in the late 90s.
School authorities reported the matter to the police who arrested Sogha and successfully prosecuted him.
By comparison, Sogha’s crime is insignificant, given the level of public funding being allegedly mishandled by Members of Parliament in Solomon Islands today.
As one political commentator puts it, “politicians are handling public money as if it’s nobody’s business. There’s no accountability and they’re doing it openly with impunity”.
Take for example, the funding provided by the Solomon Islands Government to the victims of last year’s April 2 tsunami which devastated parts of the country’s Western and Choiseul provinces.
Fifty-two people died in the early morning tidal wave, triggered by an undersea earthquake. The disaster affected some 20,000 residents of the two provinces. Six thousand houses were either destroyed or damaged. Some 5000 people remain displaced today.
Eighteen months after the disaster and millions of dollars dished out in the name of the tsunami victims, nothing has changed for thousands of people living in makeshift tents in the hills above the Gizo township, the provincial capital of Western Province.
Following a visit to Gizo in January this year, Prime Minister Derek Sikua announced a SB$15 million grant to help in the rehabilitation of the tsunami victims.
The funds were given to Members of Parliament from the two provinces, based on the extent of the destruction in each constituency, according to a media statement issued on January 25, this year.
“...the allocations are based on a report by the Solomon Islands Red Cross to the Government on shelters and homes damaged in the April 2, 2007 earthquake and tsunami,” the statement said.
According to the Office of the Prime Minister, each constituency would have a Rehabilitation Committee which would be responsible for carrying out rehabilitation programmes including purchases and distribution of building materials.
The SBD15 million government funding is in addition to the tens of millions more donated by individuals and donor governments.
Nine months on, the print media is awashed with victims asking whether their Members of Parliament had stashed away their allocations instead of spending the money as intended.
Choiseul Province Premier Jackson Kiloe led the assault.
“From when the tsunami struck until today, most of the Choiseul people never received assistance,” he told the Solomon Star newspaper last month [September].
Kiloe wants an investigation into where all the money have gone.
Chief Levi Tanavalu of North-West Choiseul echoed a similar sentiment, denying any single rehabilitation work had taken place in his area since the national government dished out the SBD15 million in January. North-West Choiseul received SBD1,360,000 [about AUD203,000] through its MP.
“...with regards to North-West Choiseul Constituency, there is no [no] single physical rehabilitation seen, heard or done,” Chief Tanavalu said in a letter published in the Solomon Star newspaper last month .
“Therefore, Mr. MP can you explain to us, your people, where is the large sums of money kept for more than one year?” he asked.
In Western Province, John Sena of Ringgi wrote to the Solomon Star echoing a similar chorus.
“We, the people of Gizo/Kolombangara, badly affected by the earthquake and tsunami, are still waiting for this assistance from our MP. It is sad to see that most of the people affected are still living in their tents when already funds have been provided by the government for rehabilitation,” Sena said.
He said the people knew that SBD2,270,000 [about AUD339,000] was given to the Gizo/Kolombangara Constituency via their MP earlier this year. Gordon Darcy Lilo is the MP for Gizo/Kolombangara.
The ongoing controversy over the tsunami funds have also spilled into church pews.
Sena, for example, accused Seventh-Day Adventist Pastor Patrick Liva in the constituency of conflict of interest. Pastor Liva is the SDA Director of Western Mission and is also chairman of the constituency’s Rehabilitation Committee.
“Can the MP and his tsunami chairman, Pastor Patrick Liva, explain to the people of Gizo/Kolombangara constituency what is happening to the fund and what stage they are in now?” Sena asked in a letter to the editor.
Anglican catechist Oliver Newton Subeu also complained bitterly to the Anglican Church headquarters [Church of Melanesia] in a letter published in the Solomon Star newspaper.
“I would like to ask the Church of Melanesia Administration, where is the money,” the Western Province catechist from Rendova demanded. We understand our Anglican members from overseas have poured millions of dollars after the tsunami struck us very badly. Please lelebet diferen from government—please do things differently from government,” he pleaded.
Responding to the criticism, general-secretary of the Church of Melanesia, George Kiriau, said the level of assistance received by the church from abroad was not sufficient.
“The money we have is in no way in comparison to funds available to the government to use,” Kiriau said.
The tsunami funds or rather its alleged misuse will continue to make waves here. But it is not the only issue.
Take for instance, Antech Computing Ltd, a local company in Honiara hand-picked to provide SBD5 million [about AUD748, 000] worth of computers and accessories to 15 secondary schools in the country.
There was no tender. According to news reports here, all SBD5 million was deposited in the company’s bank account before the computers arrived in the country. Only seven out of 15 schools have received anything, if at all.
This is despite the fact that the money went straight from the Ministry of Finance to Antech Computing Ltd’s bank account, one senior government official said.
Permanent Secretary of the Department of Education and Human Resources Development, Mylin Kuve, described the project as “a mess”, saying the department only learnt about it through the media.
“This project is a mess—we don’t know who is coordinating it and if there is a contract signed,” she told the Island Sun newspaper.
Opposition leader, Sogavare, said nine of his ministers walked out on his government last December when he removed then Finance Minister Lilo, over the computer affair.
Repeated calls for an investigation into the computer project appeared to have fallen on deaf ears. Former education minister, Job Tausinga, told the last sitting of parliament before he was moved to the forestry portfolio that he had instructed the Office of the Auditor-General to verify whether the SBD5 million had been paid to Antech Computing Ltd.