Could ignite another bonfire in Honiara

Alfred Sasako

October 2009 Issue

Two decades ago then Prime Minister Solomon Mamaloni of the Solomons reshuffled his cabinet, and placed a Guadalcanal man as Minister for Lands and Survey.
“Solo” as he was fondly known amongst friends and foes alike had received reports that the sale of government land in and around the capital Honiara was getting out of hand under the charge of a non-Guadalcanalese who was minister at the time.
Senior government officials familiar with the change told me that “Solo” was very disappointed when he later learnt that the Guadalcanalese sold more land in the short time since he took up the Lands and Survey portfolio than the previous minister did in his entire two-year stint.
Mamaloni called the Guadalcanal Minister in to account for his deeds.
“You know why I sent you to the Ministry of Lands and Survey?” Mamaloni reportedly barked at the minister.
“I thought that putting you there as a man from Guadalcanal would help stop the wholesale sale of crown land.
“Now I understand you sold more land in the short time you’ve been there than your predecessor. What do you say for yourself?”  he demanded.
In an almost inaudible voice, the minister reportedly told his boss that since he took up the appointment, sale of crown land had indeed stopped.
“Since no one’s selling land, I felt it my duty to do so,” the minister was reported to have told Mamaloni.
While the veracity of this anecdotal account could not be vouched for in its entirety, it does give one some idea of how the practice had started and evolved over the years. Now it seems everyone is hooked on it.
So much so that when Ruth Liloqula, Solomon Islands’ first female Lands Commissioner, took on the mantle earlier this year, she was shocked by what she stumbled on.
In an interview with Radio New Zealand International in September, Liloqula, an all-rounder public servant, told the network “the widespread nature of the corruption within the ministry responsible for administering crown land is shocking”.
“Corruption has permeated to the highest level, with a former Lands Commissioner transferring the title on a plot of land in the National Parliament car park to himself, and then being paid US$12,000 to surrender the title,” the former cabinet secretary said.
She said officers in the ministry have been selling land for thousands of dollars over the years.
Things were so bad that “if I were to sack all those involved, I’d have almost no officials left”.
“It is shocking but you can’t cry over spilled milk. We need to do something about the future. So that’s what we are working on, we are trying to mentor and work with the staff that are here to give them the opportunity to do what is right and turn things around,” Liloqula said.
Criminal charges may follow an internal investigation being undertaken now.
An agriculturalist by profession, Liloqula said her office is working to reform the system in the ministry in a bid to clean up malpractice and the entrenched corrupt practices of land sales.
While the idea to stem out malpractice is noble, a big question mark hangs over whether there’s political will to deal with it. Here is why.
Firmly entrenched: Any Solomon Islander with no inclination to “bribe” would tell you that you’d be wasting your time visiting the ministry with nothing in your hands. From clerk to surveyors, corrupt practices appear to be firmly entrenched.
Take, Linda’s [not her real name] account for example. A relative of Linda living overseas recently sold a property in Honiara. He had asked Linda to collect the transfer papers on the title so the sale could be completed.
Before she left her office, she telephoned to avoid the often long and unnecessary wait at the ministry. She was told the document was ready.
Another relative who tugged along reminded Linda to take “something along just in case”. Linda refused. Without her knowledge, the relative took some money along. It proved crucial in the end.
As they fronted the inquiry’s desk, they were told the document could never be found. Anywhere. An hour had passed and all the frantic searches had turned up nothing.
The document was there but it appeared the officer wasn’t willing to provide it unless he was given something in return.
“It was almost lunch-time and I was getting really frustrated, agitated, in fact. Just then, this relative of mine slipped something under his palm over the counter to the female officer.
“Almost instantly, the document was there. It’s as if it had fallen from heaven. It’s unbelievable but true,” Linda told me later.
The officer’s action has prompted one observer to remark: Corruption is so widespread because the Asians introduced it, politicians enhance it and public servants expect it”.
Sale of crown land in Honiara is nothing new, nor is it confined to public servants in the Ministry of Lands and Survey. Ordinary Solomon Islanders and body corporate appear to be involved as well.
In doing so, they have played into the hands of land speculators, particularly Asian businessmen who have become the biggest landholders in Honiara and elsewhere in the country.
Estimates vary. But some say foreigners, largely Asians, now own about 75 percent of public land in Honiara.
Here’s an example of how it’s done.
On September 1, 1994, a company called Ritaleven Investment Ltd was granted a parcel of land at Kukum along the Prince Philip Highway. The grant premium for the parcel [191-035-182], a 0.1729ha tract, was $15,500. In other words, the price of the unimproved value of the land was $15,500.
In granting the title, the Commissioner of Lands as custodian of crown land, has imposed restrictions, particularly regarding sale and transfer of the title.
Real bonanza: This means the title must never be surrendered wholly or partially within the period of five years from 1st September 1994—the date of the grant.
It was not to be. Two years later, the title had changed hands. Ritaleven Investment Ltd disposed of the land to Long & Sons Ltd for $50,000 in 1996—making a handsome profit of $34,500, not bad for hardly two years’ investment.
But the real bonanza came in 2003—seven years on—when the title changed hands again.Long & Sons Ltd sold the land to Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace, another name for Rev Moon’s Korean-based church, according to a document obtained from the Ministry of Lands’ Digital Land Register.
At the time, a single building stood on the land. It still does today. That building, according to authorities there, has been condemned, meaning no one’s allowed to occupy it. That glitch did not stop the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace paying top dollars for it.
It acquired the land and building for SB$250,000 or US$31,000, according to the document. In the seven short years, Long & Sons Ltd had made a cool $200,000 profit from the sale.
Observers say the sale is just one example of land speculation in Honiara.
The net effect is two-fold and profound. First, prices of land, particularly properties have skyrocketed to a point beyond the reach of many Solomon Islanders. Secondly, government has run out of land to build new offices, forcing it to rent from largely Asian businessmen.
Take the case of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources. It is using a temporary office in the industrial heartland of Ranadi, while its new donor-funded building is being completed. That Ranadi building, meant to be a warehouse, is owned by an Asian businessman who also has substantial land holdings in and around Honiara.
Or take the Melanesian Haus, next to the Iron Bottom Sound hotel in west Honiara. The government recently signed a deal to rent the building for $200,000 [about US$25,000] a month so that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can use it.
The ministry presently uses the same building housing the Office of the Prime Minister.
Quick buck: Rumours have it that the deal to rent the Asian businessman’s Melanesian Haus was part of an arrangement to “legitimatise” the payment of unpaid bills ran up by Members of Parliament when they used the businessman’s hotel in the lead-up to the formation of the new government in 2006.
But foreigners are not to be entirely blamed for what is happening in Honiara. Much of the blame can be laid fairly and squarely on ordinary Solomon Islanders who want to make a quick buck. Take John’s [not his real name] case as an example.
John reportedly applied for and was granted the title to a tiny strip of land sandwiched between the National Museum to the east and the Central Police Station to the west, in the heart of town. He reportedly paid $2,000 for the title.
A short time later, John reportedly sold the land to an Asian businessman for $30,000—15 times what he had originally paid.
The Asian was planning to build a nightclub right next to the Central Police station, according to sources. His plan was, however, rejected and the title withdrawn. The businessman, on the other hand, is demanding his cost be reimbursed before he surrenders the title.
Honiara, a seaside medium size city of around 60,000 residents, is a regional Pacific Islands capital growing out of control. Controversial sales of crown land over the years have denied its residents amenities such as public parks.
Ideal seafront sites clearly marked to be developed into recreational family activities have all been given away to businessmen and other individuals with the money. Hotels stand on some of these sites today.
Today, locals who felt being squeezed out are quietly talking about the repeat of April 2006 when much of Chinatown was torched. At the time, the public’s anger was vented against just two individual Asian businessmen.
Since then, the number of Asians involved in land acquisitions in and around Honiara has increased a hundred fold, raising the spectre of widespread destruction in the event the threat is repeated.