ON HOME SOIL




Last month saw the opening of the new Auki Court House, the new justice precinct, funded by the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). The new court house will ensure Solomon Islanders living in the second-largest province of Malaita have equal access to the Solomon Islands justice system. Behind the impressive new court house is an equally impressive story of a small Malaitan family company that won the contract to build it in their own province. Here, TOM PERRY talks to the man who runs that company and who shares with his staff great pride in the project.


Paul Maneipuri has every reason to be happy. The recent opening of the Malaita Magistrate’s Court, the project that Maneipuri and his company, MP Construction, had been building in the centre of Auki over the past year, was heralded as a new era for the judicial system in Solomon Islands.
The construction of the new complex, which has been led by the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) as part of its partnership with the Solomon Islands Government, marks an important milestone for Solomon Islands justice sector, with the impressive new court house providing access to the High Court and Magistrate’s Court, as well as offices for the Director of Public Prosecutions and Public Solicitor.
In formally handing over the building at the official opening in early May, RAMSI Special Coordinator Graeme Wilson said that when combined with RAMSI’s work to strengthen the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, together with the opening of the province’s new UN-standard Correctional Centre, the new Malaita Magistrate’s Court represented a major step for law and order in the Solomons’ Malaita Province.
“With the opening of this court house, the police, suspects and victims involved in cases in Malaita will no longer have to wait months to have their cases heard. Most importantly, the people of Malaita will no longer have to travel a great distance, and at great cost, to [Solomon Islands capital] Honiara to properly access their country’s justice system”.
And the significance of the new complex is not lost on  Maneipuri, himself a Malaitan. He says that a strong system of law and order is vital to ensuring his country’s future developments can be undertaken in stable conditions.
“Personally, I see law and justice in our country as very important to our development,” said Maneipuri. “And as a business owner, law and order is important; we always hope we can work in a safe environment.”
 Maneipuri’s company, MP Construction, is very much a family affair, staffed by his wife Phylistas who serves as the accountant, his younger brother Isaac who handles procurement and valuation of materials, and elder brother David, who served as the court house worksite foreman.
Since the company’s formation in 1995, it has completed a number of building projects in and around Honiara, including dormitories at Honiara’s Solomon Islands College of Higher Education in 1998.
The Malaita Magistrate’s Court project, however, in which MP Construction worked alongside RAMSI’s infrastructure team, saw significant design and construction innovations that have set new standards in Solomon Islands.
“One of the great parts of the court house project has been the attention given to the ‘finer details’. These are the details that will make a difference, long-term, to the life of this building, and make a difference to the community it is here to serve.”
These ‘fine details’, as Maneipuri calls them, are important in  ensuring the new court house uses minimal resources such as electricity and water. Design features include the extensive use of concrete and insulation which, combined with the building’s focus on natural ventilation—through large, open shutter windows and high ceilings—which means expensive and energy-guzzling air conditioning units are not required on site. Sun-sensitive lamps have also been installed at the site; ensuring external lighting is only used when the light is low enough for them to be required. And the site will only ever use a small generator, minimising its diesel and maintenance costs.
Maneipuri added that the Auki court house project represented the first time the company has undertaken a major project outside of Honiara, which provided his team with a whole new set of challenges.
“Working on site in [the Malaita Province capital] Auki has given us all a lot of new experience,” he said. “Being further from Honiara made things naturally more difficult, particularly with the supply of equipment and materials, so we gained a lot of new experience in logistics.”
The project injected more than SB$8 million into Solomon Islands, including over $1.7 million which was directly spent in Malaita. As a Malaitan working on such an enormous project in his own province, Maneipuri said the construction of the new Auki court house was of particular significance to him and his team of over 250 workers.
“We all knew we were creating a very important building for the people of our own province. It is one that will be a major improvement to helping people access the justice system, and will also be a new focal point in Auki town.
“All of our workers, the whole team; we’re all very proud to build such an impressive building with such a nice design. And to be able to do it in our own province, it is a very special feeling.”
“I hope people view court houses in our communities as buildings where leaders come together to have meetings, but also where the delegated chiefs (the magistrates and judges) can make fair judgements on issues or disputes.”
“The new court house really improves the face of Auki town, and I hope people feel pride in it. They own it. Auki is their town—and this is their building.”