Islands Business - Whispers

*BUREAUCRATIC blunders; *UNESCO fuss; *VANUATU'S Oliver twist; *MORE COUP Fallout

Bureaucratic blunders: A number of Pacific Islands countries have adopted the Office of the Ombudsman as an institution for putting bureaucratic blunders and injustices right. Which of them is on the Australian Ombudsman's black list for not receiving its assistance? The culprit has a reputation for not only hitting the bottle but also for being tied up personally with compromising practices of the sort that an Ombudsman's office is set up to stamp out.

UNESCO fuss: Perhaps the Pacific placed too much expectation on its sole rep on the executive board of UNESCO. With Palau failing to get a board seat, the hope is that Fiji as the region's only representative in the 58-member board will vigorously ensure that our voice is heard loud and clear. In what was supposed to be her first information meeting with the UNESCO director-general on January 19, our sole rep, Fiji's education minister, bailed out. She reportedly decided to give it a miss, citing the high cost of travel to attend the one-day meeting. Fair enough. But the only problem was that no sooner had she opted out of the Paris trip, her ladyship was on a plane to sunny Hawaii for a holiday.

Dress code: The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas' new governor Benigno Fitial has instructed cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats to wear business dress from Monday to Thursday, and hang the climate. That means a jacket or at least a long-sleeved shirt and tie. On Friday, a “themed shirt” and pants are okay. May be that depends on the theme. Underpants should be cool. Women can wear skirts or pants as long as they look business-like. Business-like knickers too?

The Hawaii magic touch: The American state seemed to be a favourite rendezvous point not only for a holiday but also for official business. One Fiji government CEO, accompanied by a fellow CEO who apparently had asked for a week's leave to accompany him, decided to abandon the pay talks with the civil service unions which he was supposed to have spearheaded with his minister, none other than the prime minister. Instead, he opted to fly to Honolulu to attend a meeting, Whispers was told, was in relation to one of the boards he chairs. This is not the first time he's abandoned some of his responsibilities, Whispers has been told. Last year, during a nurses strike, he was out of the country too.

Misa's new book: One of Samoa's favourite sons, Misa Telefoni Retzlaff, whose full-time job is deputy prime minister but takes to the pen in the dead of the early Apia morning, is coming out with his second book next month. (Whether it will be a pre or post election launch, Retzlaff didn't say!) It will be a non-fiction this time, and the DPM has already decided on an English title: To Thine Own Self Be True, lifted out of course from the great English playwright William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. His first incursion into the world of fiction writing was titled Love & Money.

Volunteer scheme: Imagine going to the immigration authorities and told that your work permit application has been approved. But the only problem is that the work permit application was never lodged by you. Well, that's what happened to officers at a regional tourism organisation responsible for getting European volunteers across to their regional office based in Suva for a six-month stint.

Whispers was told that the regional office had recently submitted work permit applications for two European volunteers for a six-month stint. Upon checking whether the permits had been approved, they were told by immigration authorities that only one application for one Asian sounding name was approved, and the other two were still being processed. What surprised the officers was that the approved application was not submitted by their office.

More coup fallout: Is it a case of twice beaten once shy? That's what some are thinking about in Fiji after speculations that the country's Australian-led police force is about to launch its second round of charging people, some of them prominent still, in connection with their prolonged May 2000 coup investigations. Amongst these prominent ones are a number who've already served or are still serving long jail terms copped from the force's first round of investigations. One likely to be charged is a senator who had already served time in prison, Another likely to be charged is a senior army officer who resigned from the Fiji Military Forces to work overseas. It is alleged that a meeting to plot the kidnap and assassination of a prominent politician was held at the officer's home.

Fiji safe alert: “Fiji...The One Truly Relaxing Tropical Getaway” runs as the official brand of Friendly Fiji promoted by the Fiji Visitors Bureau. It was the message run before and after an advisory put out in December in which the bureau assured visitors, present and potential, not to be bothered by the prevalent demands by the army for the sacking of the army minister and resignation of the government, which according to army chief Frank Bainimarama, is a thoroughly corrupt one intent on finding any excuse to pardon conspirators in the 2000 coup. “All parties have been assured by both the army and the police that the problems will be solved through negotiations, not confrontation, and that the law will be upheld throughout. This is essentially a political problem and has had no effect on tourism. All areas of the country are operating as normal.” That must be a relief to customers.

Another travel advisory tale: Government minister Sir Peter Barter of PNG who has a foot or two in the country's tourist trade, has written to Alexander Downer, the Australian foreign minister, asking him to water down Australian advisories that tell Australians that it's wise to steer clear of Papua New Guinea. Barter said it was very sad that Australian politicians appear to holiday everywhere else but PNG, eventhough PNG was one of the world's most interesting destinations. If just a few took the time to see the place he thought, there'd be a great change in the poor Australians' perceptions. A question: Are not Pacific Islands' foreign ministers doing their people a great disservice by failing to issue advisories about the danger of visiting, say a certain beach area of Sydney?

Cooks' lamentations: Here's just a few of what worked for the Cooks during 2005:

a cabinet minister was caught stealing public money but remains on the public payroll pending an appeal (this is a very fashionable trait in Fiji).
the works ministry advertises for supplies of housing materials for Pukapuka 11 months after a hurricane there.
the prime minister sacks a finance minister trying to save money.
parliament appoints a committee of good people to review the pay scale for MPs. The committee reports that MPs don't need more pay. Members are sacked and a tribunal appointed to reconsider parliamentary pay scales.
a new coalition government appoints sensible people to various boards and sacks them the first time they fail to obey ministerial demands.

Niue's energy hope: Niue, population a bit over a thousand people, hopes to be one of the very first, perhaps even the very first country in the world to be able to rely solely on renewable energy. It's done a deal with Greenpeace for a two-year study to decide whether all its electricity needs can be generated by a combination of windmills and solar power panels. The 100-square kilometre island enjoys a lot of sun but sometimes rather too much wind. Let's hope the windmill/solar power vision works out, although it would be a surprise if Niueans decided they could dispense with imported petrol for their cars and motor scooters and imported batteries for electric torches. Don't forget there's hope for a nuclear power station if a uranium prospecting company working there strikes it rich and Mr Bush allows them to build one.

Tourism surprise: Fiji's tourism ministry was surprised to learn in January that in February an Australian company, Argyle Hotels, planned to begin construction by “hundreds” of imported Chinese workers on a beach site bought from the Fiji Government of what would be the country's largest hotel, a “5-star 700-room” property, with a tower, housing restaurants, cinemas, recreational space and water supply. The tower poses a problem. Fiji's policy is to limit the height of hotels to the tops of the coconut palms. Another problem is getting the hotel finished in time for a “soft” March 2007 opening. By the end of January, there was no sign of the arrival of “hundreds” of workers. Perhaps they couldn't be spotted amongst the some 7000 Chinese illegals the suspicious Fiji army reckons are skulking in the country.

LBJ's mountain of debt: American Samoa's hospital has an imposing name, the LBJ Medical Center, being named after a former US president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. But this hasn't saved it from running up a mountain of debt. Happy news is that the territorial government has decided to help with US$10 million to bail the hospital out from some of its trouble, including bills for imported medicines. Of course, the government, which tends to be impecunious as the hospital, needs to borrow the US$10 million.

On the bright side: An ISLANDS BUSINESS reader offers an award for the Look On the Bright Side Of Life to the under mentioned:
MEDIA STATEMENT SOLOMON ISLANDS GOVERNMENT
“The Prime Minister, Hon. Sir Allan Kemakeza says while the Second World War was unfortunate, it had provided a historical link between the Solomon Islands and Japan."

Oliver's twist: Vanuatu's politicians, including prime minister Ham Lini and former prime minister Edward Natapei were stunned, reported the Vanuatu Post in December, about news that Mike Oliver, the American businessman behind the 1970's Phoenix Foundation episodes, had been seen back in the country talking to supporters of the breakaway Nagriamel movement. He was deported in 1980. The Vanuatu Post said it couldn't confirm that Oliver's name had been removed from the prohibited immigrants list. Oliver was involved in a scheme to set up the breakaway Vemarana state and sell 200-year leases of the island.