NATIONAL PARLIAMENT OF
DAILY HANSARD
THIRD MEETING – EIGHTH SESSION
The Deputy Speaker, Sir
Kemakeza took the chair at
Prayers.
ATTENDANCE
At prayers all were present with the exception of the Prime
Minister, and Minister for Lands & Survey, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs,
Culture & Tourism, Education & Human Resources, Mines & Energy and
the members for West New Georgia/Vona Vona, West Guadalcanal, East Honiara,
Temotu Pele, West Are Are and Hograno/Kia/Havulei.
PRESENTATION OF REPORT
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Mr Speaker: It
was discussed and agreed by the two questioners of Questions No. 19 and 27 in
consultation with the Minister for Public Service that the two questions be
asked at the same time for the Minister to give the answers because they complement
each other on a similar matter.
RECRUITMENT OF 50 CONSTITUENCY
DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS
19. Mr
KENGAVA to the Minister for Public
Service: The Government is in the
process of employing 50 constituency development officers. Can the Minister inform the House whether:
(a)
the constituency
officers will be based in provincial headquarters or in selected villages?
(b)
the constituency
officers will be answerable to their Members of Parliament?
Mr Speaker: Before the Minister for Public Service gives
his answer, I will ask the MP for North Vella La Vella to also ask his
question.
27. Mr
TOZAKA to the Minister for Public
Service: Can the Minister inform the
Parliament whether or not, prior consultation on the recruitment of civil
servants for the constituencies had been made with Members of Parliament, and
the provincial assembly authorities respectively, and if not why?
Hon SANGA: Mr Speaker, I have the following
answers: The Government currently
advertised the 50 posts which will assist the 50 constituencies in the
country. The closing date for the vacancy
notice is Friday 16th February and thereafter interviews will take
place and selections will be made.
These posts are established posts under the 2007
Establishment within the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Their personal emoluments will be met out of
the consolidated fund and therefore they are public offices within the
definition of that term under the Constitution.
Appointees
will be subject to the normal rules governing public officers under the Public
Service Commission Regulations, the General Orders, the Financial Instructions,
the Stores Instructions and the standards of ethics or ethical conducts defined
for leaders under section 94 of the Constitution.
In relation
to the first question as to whether the officers will be stationed in
provincial headquarters or in the villages, the officers will be based in
On
the second part of the question whether the officers will be answerable to the
MPs, they are expected to work closely with their MPs, but they are answerable
to the Secretary to the Prime Minister as he is their Accounting Officer and
also their Responsible Officer under the 2007 Establishment or the Office of
the Prime Minister.
In relation to the second question, the positions were
established after extensive consultations within the government structures
especially between the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Provincial
Government & Constituency Development and the Ministry of Public Service. After this extensive consultation we
eventually decided to locate the posts under the Office of the Prime Minister
& Cabinet and they will work closely within the National Planning Division
under that office.
In terms of consultation with MPs, not all MPs were
consulted. But some Members did approach
my Minister in person to suggest that the vacancy notices closing date be
extended. As a result, the closing date
for the notices has been extended to Friday 16th February. Some MPs have actually written to suggest
that the posts be given direct to the constituencies in order for MPs to fill
them in with their existing constituency workers. My Ministry takes note of this and may soon
consider the suggestions.
My Ministry has been advised that the selection for the
positions will be done in close consultation with MPs because MPs will need to
have a say in identifying the officers as after all they are expected to work
closely with all MPs.
Mr HAOMAE: The constitutional function of constituency
development officers has been gazetted and signed by the Minister for
Provincial Government. Why are the 50
constituency development officers not based in the Ministry of Provincial
Government and not answerable to the Permanent Secretary of Provincial
Government rather than the Secretary to the Prime Minister?
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker, you are correct in that
development in constituencies is within the Ministry of Provincial Government &
Constituency Development. But this is a
new initiative taken on by the government and we have decided to have it attach
to the Prime Minister’s Office, especially with the National Planning Division
within that Ministry and that we need to really have a close link with the
centre and the periphery.
Mr Haomae: Does that imply the Government does not have
confidence on the Minister of Provincial Government?
Hon Sanga: My colleague Minister will help out, but I
think it is very important to note that the concerns of the constituency are heard
by the centre. That linkage is very
important that when there are issues raised by MPs or by constituencies, it is
very important that the issues or concerns are quickly attended to and
therefore the location of these posts in the Office of the Prime Minister is
very important. By doing so it does not
mean we are going to ignore the role of the Ministry of Provincial
Government. Certainly, we are conscious
of the role of the Provincial Government, but the point I want to stress is
that it is very important for the constituencies to have accessibility to the
centre.
Mr Haomae: The Prime Minister’s Office is only doing
coordinating roles under the Constitution.
If it takes over the function of Provincial Government how would the
Prime Minister’s Office coordinate itself?
What else will the Ministry coordinate pertaining to this particular
subject?
Hon WAIPORA: Just a small point that may be missed out on
this question. The recent rearrangement
of the present government which made departments back to ministries, my
Ministry is no longer the Ministry of Provincial Government and Constituency
Development but it is the Ministry of Provincial Government and Rural
Development. That is the reason why this
function is more or less taken away from me.
Mr KENGAVA: Following the explanation given by the
Minister for Provincial Government and the Prime Minister’s Office taking over
the role of constituency development, does that mean the 50 constituency
development officers are additional political appointees?
Hon Sanga: If the questioner can recall my earlier answers,
these positions are part of the 2007 Establishment and so I have made it clear
that they are subject to the rules of the Public Service. They are public officers within the
definition of that term under the constitution.
So they are not political appointees strictly, although I expect MPs
will have their say in how the selections will be made and that I expect that
they will be working closely with all MPs.
Mr Hilly: On the same view that was expressed by the Member
for Small Malaita, in his answer to an earlier question, the Minister did refer
to the officers as having to work very closely with Planning. If that is so, why are these officers not accountable
to the PS of Planning? That is my first
question.
My
second question is, now that these officers are established, is the government going
to allocate funds to these officers to work with or do we expect these officers
to use the RCDF and the Millennium Fund in doing their work because sending
them down to the provinces or to our constituencies means that we have to pay
for their fares, give them allowance, pay their travel expenses. Is there provision given under the budget for
such expenses or are we going to use the money that is to be allocated to us to
meet their expenses?
Hon Sanga: On the issue of its location within the Office
of the Prime Minister, the Government has established the National Planning
Division within that Ministry and therefore we thought it should closely link
with that office in order for that office to be well informed about what is
going on our constituencies.
With regards to the second component of the question that
relates to the cost for the operation of this group, it will just be like an
academic exercise. When the government
creates that position then certainly it must allocate funds to make sure that
it works. But if MPs think that they should
also help out by apportioning some of their RCDF to meet the cost of the operation,
it is a suggestion that we would also want. But I do not think any of us would want to apportion
part of the RCDF for the operation of this new group.
Mr
Is
there any plan by the Department to organize any workshop for these officers,
the Members of Parliament and the departments sitting down together to thrash
out these issues? .
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker, we are in the process of filling
the positions because these positions have been advertised. The closing date will be Friday 16th February.
This
is a new initiative - an initiative that we think would strengthen work in
constituencies. But I would also like to
say that we are open to suggestions. If
in the course of the process MPs would like to make suggestions then please do
come back to us before Friday so that we can consider your suggestions.
In
terms of training, we have already given instructions to the
Mr TANEKO: Mr Speaker, this question is inline with the
bottom up approach policy where some of us have already implemented this bottom
up approach.
Mr
Speaker, I have appointed executive bodies or committees in the villages to
implement this bottom up approach. So
there are officers that already exist.
Mr
Speaker, I do not want to duplicate duties at the national level, provincial
level, and constituency level because this is an administrative job. To implement, distribute and to man and rule
the desire of the constituency is what we are asking for. I really support the implementation of the
bottom up approach.
My suggestion
is that we want service to be delivered to our people. We are now going to appoint 50 constituency
officers who will represent the constituencies.
These officers will be appointed directly by the Public Service, which
is good. I support these appointments as
the officers are going to be selected based on their academic level, experience
and so forth. However, there is one
thing that we must not forget and that is the desire or the mandate made by the
people on someone they trust, which is the Honorable Member of the
constituency. He must have a say within
the office.
Mr
Speaker, in selecting the officers, can the Member of Parliament have a say on
the appointment of the officers?
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker, I think I have adequately answered
that question already. But for the sake
of information to the MPs we are quite open for you to come and talk with us
because we understand that it is Members that know the informal structures in
the constituencies. I think already some
Members already have arrangements on the ground so it is very important that
you consult us.
At
the same time one that is also important to MPs is that I think MPs would like
to be cautious too in case the development officers come 2010 takes over the MPs. It is very important that the MPs know who is
going to take up these positions so that they can work with them in a good way
in developing the constituencies.
Mr FONO: Mr Speaker, some of us currently have
informal structures that we are already working with in our constituencies. By putting this in place, is the government looking
at formalizing constituencies as the third tier system of government that there
will be legislation for this so that it empowers the government to undertake
such recruitments for constituencies?
Is
the government looking at formalizing a structure to be brought into Parliament
for us to debate of pass legislation to that effect? Is this inline with the bottom up approach?
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker, I also thank the Leader of
Opposition for raising that important issue.
The Government is aware that a third level of governance within the
country is not in existence, which used to be the area councils. This initiative is an administrative
initiative to strengthen our constituencies.
The constituencies as we knows are established by the Constituency Boundaries
Commission but at same time over the years Members of Parliament now seem to
play very active role in overseeing developments that are taking place within
the constituencies.
The
initiative is really administrative where we are trying to strengthen the work
that is currently taking place in the constituencies. But I think at some stage the government will
sit down to seriously consider the third level of governance within the
country.
At
this point in time I am not able to tell you when but I think it is an
important consideration that we will have to make at some stage.
Mr Fono: Is the direction we are now taking in your
policy as you have just outlined?
Hon Waipora: Mr Speaker, right now we are a focusing on
the federal constitution. If Parliament passes
the federal constitution or discusses the Constitution, it would then be up to
state governments to decide another layer of government. But we must first pass the federal
constitution so that we can see what needs to be created within a state
government. At this time it is only an
administrative convenience for the 50 constituencies to do proper work with
transparency and accountability. Mr
Speaker, I would like to ask you to be the first to talk today on the budget so
that I will explain the RCDF.
Mr LONAMEI: Mr Speaker, some of the constituencies
already have secretaries who are doing constituency work. Is it possible for us to just give the names
of these secretaries to the Minister to appoint as the constituency development
officers?
I am
asking because some of them live faraway at home and therefore cannot apply for
these posts because the closing date is this coming Friday.
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker, I think I have also adequately
covered that point. But it is also
important to realize the high expectation of the government of the outputs of
the constituency development officers in that we expect people who would have the
skill of writing small projects, even to the extent of helping out with mapping
out of constituency profiles. I
understand some Members already have constituency profiles but not all
constituencies have profiles.
Whilst
we are ready to consider such suggestions we also bear in mind the high
expectations of the government on these new officers. But I would like to say once again that
certainly we are prepared to consider that kind of suggestion. Thank you.
Mr Tozaka: Mr Speaker, on the question of uniformity. I can see that these posts have been fixed at
Level 10/11. There must be good reasons
for this. In the event of the closure of
the advertisement on 16th February and the Ministry finds that there
are not enough people with the right qualification in the market. What do we do?
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker, may be I will just make a run
down of what is in place up to this morning.
As of this morning, we have already received 31 applications for 31
constituencies, which means 19 constituencies are still vacant. I am expecting that hopefully by Friday this
week we should have some more applications.
But in the event that no one applies for posts in some of the
constituencies we will again re-advertise the posts.
Mr Huniehu: Mr Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister
whether he can seriously consider making these appointments to be political
appointments because these posts should be kept within the four years term of
the current Members of Parliament. If
they are permanent posts I don’t think it will work. That is what I would like to ask my good
Minister to consider looking into this suggestion.
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker, I would like to take note of the
suggestion, but for the information of Members of Parliament these positions are
established positions within government structures. Initially they will be on FTA appointments.
Mr Kwanairara:
My question goes along with the question
by the MP for Rendova/Tetepare. Since
all 50 Members of Parliament are now in
Hon Sanga: Mr Speaker, I would like to say that the
advertisements are still open and they will close on Friday. I am not quite sure with the objective of that
meeting but I would like to say that if Members would like to talk to my Department
of Public Service they are free to do so.
Otherwise by advertising them we comply with the law too. Because if we short circuit it anyone who
thinks had legitimate expectation from the fact that these positions are still
on offer and we quickly close them we might get into trouble.
Mr Kengava: Mr Speaker, before I thank the Minister of
Public Service, I just want to raise a point for noting. Whilst the motive of appointing constituency
development officers is right from the government’s point of view, my fear is
that if we do not clearly set out the duties of what these officers should be
doing they could easily be in conflict with the Member of Parliament. For that reason I would like to raise a point
that may be in due course as you go about implementing this program rather than
these officers becoming constituency development officers they become
constituency secretaries so that they can also be accountable to the Member of
Parliament whilst they are answerable to the Prime Minister.
With
that point, Mr Speaker, I thank the Minister for answering the question.
20. Mr KENGAVA to the Minister
for National Reconciliation and Peace:
(a) Is the Government aware of the outstanding compensation claims by
the people of North West Choiseul over the Bougainville Spillover Effects? (b) What action is the government taking to
address the issue?
Hon IDURI: Mr Speaker, I thank the Honorable Member for
In
addressing this issue my Ministry will firstly revisit the outstanding claims
that were submitted by the Province. We
will also do an independent assessment of the claims. Part of the assessment is to ensure that wards
that were directly affected by the Crisis are clearly identified and verified.
The
assessment will also involve meeting with the Provincial Government and the
people of the constituency to ascertain and get agreement on what form or type
of compensation will be made. It is after
the assessment that the Ministry will plan the next steps it will take in
addressing the claims hopefully once and for all.
Mr Kengava: Mr Speaker, if the government is planning to
work closely with the province to come up with a report, what is the time frame
in starting that process?
Hon Iduri: Mr Speaker, desk assessment will start straight
away. The provincial government can
follow up with the Ministry. The Member
is welcomed to make suggestions and can see us at the Ministry.
Mr Kengava: Mr Speaker, a motion moved by myself was
passed in Parliament on behalf of the people requesting a special task force to
be set up to look into the matter. I
wonder whether the Ministry considers that idea so that it works closely with
the province and the national government.
Hon Iduri: Mr Speaker, we will be doing the assessment.
Mr Kengava: Mr Speaker, since there is no specific
indication in the budget on this concern, can the Minister assure people of
North West Choiseul that there are funds to go ahead deal with this outstanding
issue, which is well over 10 years now?
Hon Iduri: Mr Speaker, we will bring this up in the
supplementary act.
Mr SITAI: Mr Speaker, this is a very long outstanding
issue. If the problem is to do with
funding what is the possibility of the Government utilizing some of the funds
that
Hon LILO: Mr Speaker, the two Members who have been asking
supplementary questions on this question have noted that this issue has been
outstanding for almost 10 years. Governments
during those periods unfortunately have not been able to address the issue of
compensation claim by the people of North West Choiseul.
This
Government will try its best to look into what has been paid by the Papua New
Guinea Government in the past and try to reconcile what is it that has been
earmarked for the people of Choiseul, and we will try to see how best we can
address this issue. But as you well
aware issues that are outstanding for that long period will also take time too
for us to get the information right before we can make well informed decision
on the matter.
What we can assure the House
is that we will look into all these issues and try to talk it through the
bilateral arrangement with PNG and we can come to some kind of understanding as
to how we can settle this issue of the people of
Mr TOZAKA: Mr Speaker, I gather that compensation of this nature
normally does not go down very well with donors. My question is, the government of the day will
now be able since 10 years has passed and no action has been done whether any contribution
could be considered to be allocated to claims of this nature.
Hon Lilo: Mr Speaker as I have said we will look at all
avenues as to how we will address this issue including donors as well. Again as what I have said 10 years is a long time.
If governments in the past have not been
able to address then we will find it quite difficult too to try and trace where
the problem lies. So give us time. We are only 10 months since we are in the
government so give us time to revisit the facts behind this issue and then we
will publicly make it known to the people of
Mr Kengava: Mr Speaker, before I thank the Minister of Finance
and the Minister of Reconciliation I just want to reiterate again that this
claim of over 10 years is very much like the bona fide demands of the people of
With
that comment, I would like to thank both Ministers for answering the questions.
Question No. 24 deferred
25. Mr HAOMAE to the
Minister for Police and National Security:
What is the present Government’s policy on rearming the Solomon Islands
Police Force?
Hon TOSIKA: Mr Speaker, as you aware, on Friday under the motion
raised by the Leader of Opposition we have discussed this issue at length, and
I suppose the Member should gather his answers from that discussion. But if he wants me to answer this question I
do have answers related to this question.
Sir, as I have alluded in my statement made on Friday, it
is the government’s policy to review and strengthen the Police Force, and one
of the activities under that policy statement that is rearming of the CPP, and here
are the line of actions the government is taking now. Not only on that but also reemphasizing that
Police will train with batons and shields.
This is to take care of any riots happening in the future.
We
are not arming people with heavy guns but we are arming people with batons and
shields. That is the first line of
action under this Policy we will undertake. The Commissioner of Police is now in the
process of acquiring these equipments for the Solomon Islands Police Force.
We will
train local police officers with the assistance of RAMSI and these equipments
will be sourced from
One
thing we must realize is, until such time we train these officers to have
confidence in themselves, have the structure, have the energy and have the
strength, we will realize what we expect from these officers in the future. So we are taking steps in training these
people in this area.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker, has the government in place an
implementation work plan on the ground, and if so what is the plan?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, as I said it is an immediate
thing. The officers have been identified
and equipments are being ordered and are on their way to
Mr Taneko: Mr Speaker, as the Minister for Police, is the
recommendation to rearm coming from your office?
Hon Tosika: Certainly, it is a government policy under my
portfolio and so I have to implement those policies to fulfill the Government’s
intention to see its citizens protected as well as their properties and lives.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker, if I can reframe the question
from the Member for Shortlands. This
question of rearming the Police Force, did it come from the Minister as the Minister
for National Security or did it come from somewhere else?
Hon Tosika: Under the broad policy you can see the policy
of reviewing and strengthening of the Police Force, and under the work programs
you can see the itemized activities that will happen under that broad policy.
Mr Taneko: Mr Speaker, can the Minister confirm whether
they have identified suitable, qualified and ethical police officers that would
be armed if the rearming exercise by the government is to go on? Can the Minister identify the officers?
Hon Tosika: Under the capacity building and training
program of the Police Force, there is in place very strict recruitment
procedures where fair representation of people throughout the country is
made. This is one of the criteria that
will set the integrity and the fairness that we would like to see in the Police
Force. Those who are recruited are competent. Most of them attain education levels up to Form
5, Form 6 and Form 7. The standard of
recruitment has improved and we have confidence that if these new officers are
built they will certainly have the integrity and confidence to look after this
country in the future.
Mr GUKUNA: Mr Speaker, I understand there are lots of
ex-militants guarding the Prime Minister in the Office of the Prime
Minister. Are these people going to carry
guns too?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, that question has no
foundation. That is a mere hearsay
allegation against police officers who are with the Prime Minister’s
Office. All police officers working in
the Close Protection Unit are not militants but are police officers duly
recruited and approved by authorities, the Police and Prison Services
Commission.
Mr Haomae: Is the Minister aware that the police
officers who would be given guns have already been identified?
Hon Tosika: All I am aware of is that we have sent 12
officers for training in
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker, could the Minister ensure that
officers identified for rearming must not be from one province?
Hon Tosika: As I have said earlier, recruitment is done
on equitable basis based on provinces and the population. When police officers are trained and capable
of carrying out their duties we cannot say only officers from this province
will be selected. It will depend on the
capability and performance of duties and how they adapt to the environment they
are being deployed. As I said we recruit
people based on equitable basis and to allocate people to whatever area comes
directly under the responsibility of the Commissioner of Police under the
operational order.
Mr Taneko: Did the Minister have consultation with the
Commissioner of Police Operations before recommending rearmament of the Police?
Hon DARCY: Point of order, Mr Speaker. This issue has been discussed in a motion on
Friday last week, and I thought the Prime Minister has made an assurance to
this House that there will be wider consultation with all stakeholders
including the Opposition, and every other people who have expressed their
reservations and critics on this particular issue. They will all be invited to a meeting. And this is the very reason why the Prime
Minister is absent from Parliament today to organize that consultation. I feel all the questions that have been asked
can be adequately raised during this consultation. For the time being we can only be raising
very hypothetical questions which will not be beneficial to the House and the
public too.
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, it is a policy aspect, which
under the Constitution gives me right to direct the Commissioner of Police to implement,
and therefore even if I do not have any discussion with him I can direct him on
policy aspects, except for operational matter that he has the right to
implement. But according to the Constitution
this is only a policy matter and therefore he must carry out what I direct him
to do.
Mr Taneko: What percentage of risk is there when he
recommended the Police to be rearmed?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, I think we have discussed this issue
at length on Friday. The percentage of
anything depends very much on how one looks at it. As far as we are concerned we are trying to
protect rights, individual rights and properties.
I
have made in my statements very clear that our Police Officers were not armed
during April 18, which gives rise to the question when properties were
destroyed. We have also experienced in
the past that when riots happen in
Mr Taneko: Have diagnostic tests been given to the
officers before the recommendation and how many of them have passed?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, I do not know that question and so
I will answer it later.
Mr Gukuna: Are you going to instruct the Police to shoot
to kill or will they just be holding the guns?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, this is the misunderstanding that
most people and MPs here in Parliament have.
Police officers are disciplined officers and therefore cannot just use
their weapons recklessly to kill people according to their own taste or
feeling. They have to be given an
operational order before they can act and that order must come from the
Commissioner of Police. So I deny such a
statement that if we arm these officers they can kill anybody on the streets
according to their wish or their liking.
This is not true.
We
have seen in the past that police officers do not arm themselves. The arms were in the armory until such time
orders are given before the arms will be taken from the armory, recorded and
those officers must put back the guns when the order has been completed.
To say that when officers are arm they will go around the
street with arms and start killing people is untrue and is uncivilized
thinking.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker, the Minister is on record that he
will reactive the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) and the Police Field Force (PFF). Mr Speaker, in terms of timeframe when is he
going to rearm these units?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, I think I am going to repeat
myself here. I mentioned earlier that
police officers of these units will be trained with arms and batons and
implementation of this is now underway.
To rearm these people with guns is not the priority of this
government. It is only batons and shields
except the CCP officers who will be armed with pistols, batons and handcuffs.
Mr Taneko: Under the Police capability plan, is the
Minister, under this plan, going to train Police Officers on such for the
future of
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, the capability plan as I said
earlier on is that they will be trained.
These officers will be trained to handle batons and shields. Under the capability plan they will be trained
on that area, but they will not be trained to hold big guns. We will train them to combat any uprising
with batons, shields and even using the fire trucks to disburse crowds.
Mr Haomae: Before I thank the hard working Minister for
Police and National Security, my friend, when you establish the RRU and the
PFF, if the assessed risk goes beyond the batons that the Minister mentioned it
will be open for the big guns. That is
why the question has been asked.
In
any case, I must assure the Minister that he must investigate the fact that the
lists of officers who will be issued with the guns have already been identified
and he must identify them because I think they only come from one province.
I thank you for answering the question, Mr Speaker.
26. Mr
GUKUNA to the Minister for Finance and Treasury: The Solomon Islands National Provident Fund
has just taken over Shell Company; this in effect is an investment decision to
enter an industry that is fundamental to our economy.
(a) What
is the government’s position on this specific acquisition taking into account
security of supply, pricing and future storage capacity?; and
(b) What
are the criteria used for selecting GRP as partner and manager of this new Oil
Entity, South Pacific Oil?
Hon LILO: Mr Speaker, I would like to thank the Member
for Rennell/Bellona for asking this question.
Mr Speaker, as you are aware, in early 2006, Shell
indicated its decision to sell its investment in
Mr Speaker, as you are aware, this country heavily
depends on imported oil for its energy needs. Nearly all of the investments that we do in
the country depends on oil and for a long time this country will continue to
depend on imported oil as a source of energy.
Mr Speaker, at the time when the intention of this joint
venture between the National Provident Fund and the GRP associates was put
forward to the government, we put a point to the joint venture that certain
issues will have to be secured. And one
of that is that the joint venture would acquire the business and securing also
the sources of overseas supplies of fuel to the country. Mr Speaker, because of that condition, the
joint venture has been able to secure several technical agreements and supports
from the Shell Oil in ensuring that the supply of fuel into the country is not
disrupted and that we maintain constant supply of fuel to
To date, Mr Speaker, I can assure this House that the
frequency or the reliability of fuel shipment into the country has been
increased as oppose to previous arrangement under Shell. There is fuel shipment into the country every
three weeks now as oppose to the frequency of five to six weeks during Shell’s
time.
Mr
Speaker, in terms of pricing, as the Member asking this question is fully aware,
the pricing arrangement that is currently in operation is the price template
that was prepared by the Energy Department of the South Pacific Forum, and that
is the same price template that is currently being used by all the fuel suppliers
in the country including Markwarth Oil which took over business from Mobil Oil
during your time, Mr Speaker.
With
this price template arrangement, Mr Speaker, the major components that are
normally being considered by the Price Control Division is the overseas price
of fuel or freight and foreign currency movement. As can be seen, these are very volatile
components in any fixing of prices in any country, and the same also applies here.
In
terms of the future of fuel storage or relocation of the fuel storage in
Honiara, we will revisit this and we have required this new joint venture - the
South Pacific Oil to revisit the feasibility report that was funded by the
European Investment Bank some 20 years ago to look at the feasibility of
relocating the fuel storage from where they are currently located to a site
somewhere in Lungga.
The
only unfortunate thing is that when the site was visited lately a settlement is
already there. So we have to find
another site for the relocation of the fuel storage, but these are some of the
issues we will be considering.
But the
South Pacific Oil and also Markwarth Oil are required to revisit the fuel
relocation study that was prepared some 20 years ago to ensure that the land
that is so important for other port development and township development in
town can be released for those developments and that the fuel storage facility
can be relocated to some areas that can be looked at the expansion of the fuel
storage in the country. That is on fuel
storage.
In
terms of the choice of GRP and Associates, Mr Speaker, in fact it is GRP and Associates
that have invited the National Provident Fund.
The bid by this joint venture now is attractive to Shell because of the
inclusion of GRP and Associates. GRP and
Associates has been a fuel supplier in this country for almost 20 years. They been operating the fuel facility in Gizo,
which the second largest fuel facility in the country for almost 20 years, and
it is that experience that Shell is attracted to in offering the sale of that
business and the assets of Shell company to this new venture. So it is not really the National Provident
Fund that has selected the GRP but it is the GRP Associates that has invited
Shell to be part of this venture.
The
choice of NPF or the National Provident Fund to be part of this venture is
based on commercial assessment of the profitability of this investment and
based on the investment assessment that has been conducted. We firmly believe that this venture can net
after tax profit of $10million which will give some four years down the track to
recover the initial capital that has been invested in this venture.
That
is the situation of this particular joint venture. Thank you Mr Speaker.
Mr Fono: What is the composition of percentage in
terms of shareholder ship? What
percentage does the NPF own and what percentage is the GRP Associates, and what
is the investment cost to the National Provident Fund?
Hon Lilo: Mr Speaker, the venture is put together in
such a way that it has a total share value of about $42million, and out of this
shareholding arrangement the NPF holds about $40million worth of shares which equates
to about 95% and the GRP Associates hold 5%.
Mr RINI: Mr Speaker, what is the rate of return
expected on that investment by the NPF?
Hon Lili: Mr Speaker, we are expecting a rate of return
well above the current interest on lending in the country by the commercial
banks, in fact it is above 18 percent.
If
you look at the projection of about $10million after tax profit from this
investment on yearly basis and it will slowly accumulate to about $10 to $15million
over the next two to three years, we believe that the rate of return will be
above the current commercial rate that is applied in the country of 18%.
Mr TANEKO: What is the authorized capital on these two
partners?
Hon Lilo: Mr Speaker, I have just told you that the
authorized capital is about $42million, and the allotted capital to the National
Provident is $40million and to the GRP Associates is $2.1million.
Mr Taneko: The NPF is owned by Solomon Islanders, can
the share certificate be given to individual members?
Hon Lilo: Mr Speaker, that is not possible under the
National Provident Fund Act. As you know
the NPF is a separate entity from the members.
The members are members of the National Provident Fund in terms of the
contribution by individual members and in addition the contribution by the
employers. But as it is right now, it
cannot be. The Fund, as an entity, is a
separate entity from members.
What
members can benefit from are dividends from investments made by the National
Provident Fund. It is that dividend that
will be declared as interests that is apportioned to member’s contributions.
It
is quite different from the case of the Insurance where individual policies are
issued to each individual member where they have shown the evidences of paying
up the premium over the policies. But in
the case of a corporate entity like this, that is not possible because of the
separation of the status of the company, the legal status of the company to
that of the members.
Mr Taneko: What is the paid up capital?
Hon Lilo: Mr Speaker, the current paid up capital is $21million
by the National Provident Fund and $2.1million by GRP Associates.
Mr Taneko: Is my good friend, the Minister of Finance
aware that the National Provident Fund is owned by the poor Solomon Islanders?
Hon Lilo: Mr Speaker, that is not correct. The ordinary rural people in
But
we do. It is through our contribution to
the National Provident Fund that we contribute to the development of the poor,
our rural in terms of the various investments that the National Provident Fund
carries out and out of those investments, the government gets tax from those
investments, channels it through the budget and then deliver to the rural
poor. In that way, we help to benefit
the rural poor. But the National
Provident Fund is owned by the working class.
Mr Rini: Apart from the Gizo Depot, are there any
other operations or depots bigger than Gizo in the Pacific or in the region
that the GRP is managing or operating?
Hon Lilo: Mr Speaker, the only investment the GRP is
operating is in Gizo in the
It
has also attained various certification and accreditation to the kind of
standards of the fuel industry and it is on that basis that Shell was attracted
to the proposition that is put forward by the GRP and Associates.
Mr Gukuna: Mr Speaker, before I thank the hard working
Minister of Finance, I would just like to make a comment about this particular
question.
The
actual price according to the information I have is that the NPF and GRP have
paid Shell is $20miilion. The NPF puts
in $18million and the GRP $2million. If one
looks at the valuation of the assets the cash flow projection can only be
optimistic, one can realize that this is a give away price, $20million is a
give away price.
My
concern is that the GRP is owned by two individuals and they stand to take a
lot of benefits from this undertaking.
The NPF has the money and the ability to pay off $20million and could
have just contracted out the management and that would have been very
fair. But the arrangement where 5% is
owned by two individuals and the rest of the shareholding is owned by more than
20,000
But having said these
comments, I would like to thank the Minister for answering the question which
is well comprehensively covered.
Both
of us worked together in the same Ministry before when we were dealing with the
same industry. When he referred to the
report of sometime back I can understand that report which was a very important
report that we tried our best to pursue but did not work. With that, I thank the Minister.
28. Mr LONAMEI to the
Minister for Health and Medical Services:
Can the Minister confirm to this Parliament if the Ministry has plans to
upgrade the
Hon SOALAOI: Mr Speaker, the Ministry’s current plan is to renovate
and upgrade
My
good Member for Maringe/Kokota can be assured that the posting of doctors to
Buala is done according to a policy. Doctors are not only posted depending on the
number requested or wanted by any particular province. It is done according to a policy.
On other
specialized services, there are practical problems facing the
Mr Lonamei: Mr Speaker, since there is shortage of houses
in Buala, are there plans by the Ministry to build some more houses?
Hon Soalaoi: Mr Speaker, the recently approved budget of
the Ministry, which also includes other provinces, new staff houses will be
built for medical officers in Buala.
There are also plans to renovate existing medical houses in Buala.
We recently
had a visit from the Provincial Premier who assured us that there is land
available for medical houses. Yes, there
are plans to build accommodation for medical staff at Buala. This should enable us send additional staff
especially with specialized services.
Mr FONO: Mr Speaker, I do understand that the medical
or government is renting houses for doctors in Auki. Can you rent any private houses at Buala to
accommodate medical officers in line with current government policy of renting
houses for doctors at provincial centres? Or is that policy only applies to Malaita and not
other provincial centres like Buala?
Hon Soalaoi: Mr Speaker, the policy applies to all provinces. Practically, there is a problem in Buala because
there are not even houses available for rent.
In Auki, there are houses available for rent. But there are no private houses available for
rent in Buala and so we cannot even rent houses for our medical staff.
Mr HAOMAE: Mr Speaker, in view of the practical problem
stated by the Minister as non availability of houses to rent, is this going to
be within the Ministry’s budget to make sure the doctors live in the rest house
in Buala.
Hon Soalaoi: Mr Speaker, I cannot still hear you but I
think you mentioned rest houses. The
problem is that we can only put single staff in rest houses, Mr Speaker. If there is a rest house available we can consider
that.
Mr KWANAIRARA: Mr Speaker, seeing that housing is a problem,
how do you service the hospitals that really need the services of a doctor?
Hon Soalaoi: Mr Speaker, due to shortage of houses in
Buala as well as in other provinces, the Ministry has allocations for all
provincial hospitals in the budget. This
government will continue to provide service grants to provincial hospitals. They will decide on what they need to do in
order to improve housing. There are also
projects earmarked for some of the provinces and we support them by providing
service grants through the budget.
Mr Kwanairara: Mr Speaker, I think the Minister has not answered my
question. I want to know how you service
such hospitals that do not have the services of a doctor because of shortage in
houses and even no rest houses to accommodate the doctors and staff. How do you serve the hospitals that are really
in need of a doctor? Do you make annual
visits, weekly visits or monthly visits to the provincial hospitals?
Hon Soalaoi: Mr Speaker, in terms of supporting hospitals that
do not have doctors, some of our doctors are being rotated to serve such hospitals. Whenever a medical team from the
Mr Lonamei: Mr Speaker, the Minister mentioned that he is
going to build two or three buildings at Buala.
Can he confirm whether those houses are going to be completed within
this financial year?
Hon Soalaoi: Mr Speaker, in regards to medical staff
houses at Buala, I do not want to put false hopes on the Member, but it will
take time. After the budget is passed
there are other things to do like planning and so forth. But work will certainly start this year.
Mr Lonamei: Mr Speaker, before I thank the Minister for
Health, I would just like to say a few comments here. The
Now
that we know the Ministry can rent houses for medical people, we at Buala village
have many houses available, and so if they are listening in I am sure they will
begin to clear their houses so that doctors can be posted to the hospital as
soon as possible.
29. Mr LONAMEI to
Minister for Police and National Security:
Can the Minister confirm to Parliament if the government is going to
compensate those whose guns were taken away from them during the tension?
Hon TOSIKA: Mr Speaker, I thank the Member for
Maringe/Kokota Constituency for asking this question. Mr Speaker, the government is not in a
position to compensate the arms that were taken out from the armory on June 5th
because those arms were taken illegally from the armory, and so the government
is not in a position to compensate those arms.
Mr HAOMAE: Mr Speaker, I think what the Member for
Maringe/Kokota is referring to are the licensed guns, like the point 22 which were
handed in, in pursuant to the past government’s policy of gun free, and not the
ones taken out from the armory. He is
referring to the licensed guns that our people pay license from the Police before
the tension and which were taken away from them during and after the
tension. I think that is the essence of
the question by the Member for Maringe/Kokota:
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, if that is the question then that
should be asked separately from this question. This question is too general and I take it
guns that were taken away during the tension, as it does not specifically
mention licensed fire arms. These are
two different things. One is the arms
taken out from the armory, which is illegal and the other one is the arms that
were licensed under the Firearms and Ammunition Act. Therefore, it must be specifically put to
Parliament so that it is clear to every one of us.
Mr Haomae: Mr Speaker, whether it is licensed guns or
not licensed they are just guns. The
supplementary question now is whether the Minister can inform Parliament
whether he will compensate whose licensed guns were taken away from them during
the tension?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, if that is the case then the public
must know that we are only talking about licensed firearms and not arms taken
illegally from the armory.
Mr
Speaker, section 8 of the Constitution gives people the right to protection of
properties and under that same section it gives the Parliament the authority to
retrieve arms from them if there is a defense for public safety or public order.
The
Facilitation Act which came into force in 2003 goes in line with section 8(1)
of the Constitution to retrieve these arms on the basis of public safety and
public order. In this case, when this
was considered subsection 8(1)(c)(i) which says that if you retrieve arms you
must compensate them.
The
Constitution is very clear on this issue that if arms are retrieved because for
safety and law and order, subsection (c)(i) must be taken into account to compensate
the owners of the arms.
Under
Cabinet C15/2006 dated
Mr Fono: Mr Speaker, just a correction. The last government did not defer
payment. The paper was returned for more
information on who actually gave in their firearms when there was a general
call by government and how much the firearms cost. Had responsible officers been doing their job
by now they would have given that information to the new government.
Can
the Minister inform this House whether that information is available to the
government so that it makes a decision to compensate our people who surrendered
their firearms?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, I am not talking about payment but
deferment of the Cabinet Paper on this issue. Up to now there are no records to show anyone working
on this issue. I am coming up with a
list of those who have licensed firearms under the Firearms and Ammunition Act.
The
government is concern about this issue and so my Ministry is tasking this issue
to relevant authorities as well as the Attorney General’s Chambers for legal clarification
surrounding the compensation payment on the licensed firearms.
We
take it that it is the right of those who legally own the firearms must be
compensated. Their rights were not
properly taken into account during the course of retrieving the arms from both ex-militants
and also those with licensed firearms.
The
Ministry is asking for the list of those who handed in their guns and also ask the
public to identify themselves and show their legitimate papers concerning the firearms
they were licensed to have.
Mr Kwanairara: Under the new policy of rearming certain
units within the Police Force, do you think those with firearm licenses can be
given back their license as well?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, I think that is a concern. If we are to rearm citizens under that act
then we are posing threats to the community.
Your son might hold a gun and when he is drunk he can shoot another
man. The government has no intention and
policy to rearm civilians in the community. But the government only has intention and policy
to arm the disciplined force. There is
no policy at this point in time to rearm the general public.
Mr Lonamei: Mr Speaker, when the licensed firearms were collected
from the people, they were told that if they did not hand the firearms back in
time they will be fined $25,000. Is the
government going to compensate them within that range?
Hon Tosika: Mr Speaker, this is why this issue is being
put to the Attorney General’s Chambers to analyze the pros and cons and also
the cost of compensation on this issue.
At this point in time I have yet to see any report on this issue.
Mr Lonamei: Mr Speaker, I want to thank the Minister for
Police and Justice for his answers. The
concern here is that people who handed in their licensed firearms are still very
much concern that the government must compensate them. I am happy that the Minister has assured that
they are in the process of paying these people.
BILLS
Bills – Second Reading
The 2007 Appropriation Bill
29007
(Debate continues)
Hon ABANA: Mr Speaker, I thank you for affording me this
opportunity to address this honorable chamber.
But first Mr Speaker, may I take this opportunity to accord your good
self and members of this House, my warmest greetings and best wishes for 2007.
Mr Speaker, this is a new year and it is my firm belief
that it will be a special year: a year of transition and tangible progress for
the people of the
I thus say with confidence, Mr Speaker, that 2007 will be
different. The Grand Coalition for
Change Government has developed a development budget focused on making a
difference – that is, to make the lives of rural people better and also giving
them opportunities to participate meaningfully in rural economic
development. Sir, I believe, God’s hand
is upon this nation and through the faithful prayers of believing Christians we
will make a difference.
Mr Speaker, I will highlight important and relevant
issues in support of, by far, the largest Development Estimates to date. I will also attempt to bring clarity to how
the development budget will support rural development in view of some of the
confused and negative statements made on the floor in relation to the bottom-up
approach. Sir, it seems the
misunderstandings around the bottom-up approach are a hang-over from the ages
of the top-down governance.
Implementation of 2006 Development Estimates. Mr Speaker, before I speak on new development
spending proposals for 2007, I believe it is important that we reflect on last
year, and the progress this government has made since May 2006. In this regard, Mr Speaker, it is far to say
that for the first time since 2003, the government has implemented its own
development projects. This government is
delivering results, results that have been lacking since 2003.
Let me put facts behind this claim, Mr Speaker. In 2005, just two percent (2 %) of government
money in the development estimates was spent.
Yet in 2006, this government managed to spend thirty-three percent (33%)
of the development estimates. These are
the figures, Mr Speaker, and they mark real progress in delivering results to
our people. I am thus confident, Mr
Speaker, that in 2007 we will continue to improve project implementation and
deliver more to our people. Significant
challenges however remain, but we will work hard to improve people’s lives through
the bottom-up approach to development.
Improvements in the 2007 Development Estimates. Mr Speaker, building on the lessons of last
year, my Ministry has striven to improve the 2007 Development Estimates. This development budget was the result of
hard work, and I offer my sincere thanks to officials from the Ministry of
Finance and the Ministry of Development Planning and Aid Coordination. Their diligence and commitment have enabled
this government to deliver a fully-funded budget that is far larger than that
of previous governments.
Mr
Speaker, you will note that the development estimates document has changed, and
now contains funding estimates until 2009.
It also contains estimates of consolidated funds by sector and province,
and many other technical modifications.
Mr
Speaker, these changes demonstrate the forward looking nature of this
government, the transparency it is trying to introduce, and ultimately better
illustrates what the government is trying to achieve.
Also
importantly, Mr Speaker, improvements have been made in compliance with budget
processes. This has resulted in much
better quality projects in the 2007 Development Estimates. And better quality projects mean better
results.
I am
thus confident to say that real results will be delivered in the coming
months. So confident, in fact, this
Government has allocated eighty eight point four million dollars ($88.4
million) of revenue towards development.
This is twice the previous government’s commitment to development.
The
‘Big-Picture’ of the 2007 Development Estimates. Mr Speaker, before we discuss the particulars
of these new development initiatives, allow me to briefly bring into
perspective the ‘big picture’ of national development funding.
Mr
Speaker, total funding for the 2007 Development Estimates is over two billion
dollars ($2billion). Just the assistance
channeled directly through the government is over one billion, nine hundred and
eighty five million dollars ($1,985,000,000) respectively.
The
2007 Development Budget is thus much larger than last year, increasing two
hundred and twenty four million dollars ($224 million) or twenty two percent
(22%). This dramatic increase
illustrates donor’s continuing support for this government’s development
policies. And indeed, Mr Speaker, there
is no better way that the donors can illustrate their support for this
government than to increase their funding.
Mr Speaker,
whilst on this subject, I also wish to put in perspective some statements made
by some honorable colleagues during our debate on this bill especially, my
honorable colleague for East Are Are.
Sir, although he rightfully pointed out a reduction in the development
part of the Appropriation Bill, I think he is a little bit confused. Mr Speaker, it is the consolidated funds in
the development estimates that are appropriated, and this reduction is in fact
due to improvements in budget preparations.
Mr Speaker,
previous development estimates of consolidated funds were not appropriately
defined because they included assistance from donors that should have been part
of ‘Jointly Administered Funds’ in the budget estimates. In fixing this problem, the 2007 Appropriation
appears to be reduced. In actual fact,
it now reflects reality, meaning that past estimates were inflated.
Mr
Speaker, technicalities aside, the development budget represents a huge sum of
money. It is over twice as large as the
recurrent estimates. This government
recognizes that such large amounts of assistance are very important in helping
us deliver results to our people.
Whilst
some may point to a donor driven budget, may I remind this House that donor
projects are only ever implemented once they have been scrutinized, modified,
and approved by the government. Mr
Speaker, just because donor funds do not go through the government’s financial
system, be assured that the donors are answerable to the government under the
various implementation agreements.
Mr
Speaker, this government recognizes that improvements in security, the delivery
of health and education services, and improvements to transport infrastructure
will depend on continued donor support.
I thus take this opportunity to say how much this government welcomes
and values such support.
Indeed, Mr Speaker, in allocating our financial
resources, we have carefully considered where donor funds are flowing, and have
used domestic resources to plug any gaps.
This will ensure the government’s policies are delivered. Mr Speaker, in this regard, I am pleased to
say that donors are looking more towards the productive sector, and that this
trend is set to continue in 2008 and 2009.
Mr Speaker, a large increase in funding is for transport
and infrastructure, which with the completion of the National Transport
Strategy has given donors a framework to follow. Funding will increase by 35% from one hundred
and fifty million dollars ($150million) to over two hundred and ten million
dollars ($210million) respectively. This
massive investment in rural roads, bridges and wharves will link people to
markets and services, and support a revival in economic activity.
Sir, increases for agriculture in 2007 are even greater
in percentage terms, nearly doubling from twenty-six million dollars ($26
million) to fifty-two million dollars ($52 million). Mr Speaker, I cannot understand why the
Opposition claims that we are not investing sufficiently.
Double
the investment in a single year plus donor support to agriculture is expected
to rise even more considerably in 2008 and 2009 following the completion of our
Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy.
Coupled to improved infrastructure, this will deliver real change to
people’s lives over the next five years.
Mr Speaker, the fisheries and forestry sectors are also
receiving more development assistance, from what historically has been a very
low base. Funding for forestry will
increase thirty-six percent (36%). Given
the predicted decline in revenue from logging, and the great importance this
sector plays in the economy, this spending will be targeted towards supporting
smallholder plantation forestry. Sir,
similar efforts are in place for larger forestry plantations.
Mr Speaker, Rural Energy spending is also expected to
increase over the coming years. Indeed,
2007 marks the modest start of a very significant program of investment by the
World Bank. Investments that will make
the lives of our rural people better.
Mr Speaker, in support of all these spending on economic
development, let us not forget the central role provided by improvement in
security. Mr Speaker, this government is
absolutely committed to a safe and peaceful
Mr Speaker, the Government supports such massive
investment in law and justice in recognition that improvements in security have
underpinned this country’s recovery since 2003.
Mr Speaker, without the rule of law, people will not invest, and the
country cannot function effectively. And
most importantly, people must be able to live their normal lives, free from
fear and intimidation.
The 2007 development projects. Central to the bottom-up approach is
government investment to generate economic development. Economic development focused in rural areas,
where our people live. Allow me to now
elaborate on the details of our spending.
Mr Speaker, over thirty-two million dollars ($32 million)
of consolidated funds will support development projects in agriculture,
forestry and fisheries. Major
investments will be made in cattle, cocoa, and oil palm; investments that will
span a number of years.
In addition, there is significant support to the
production of traditional and niche crops, which can generate large amounts of
income for many people. Indeed, Mr
Speaker, 2007 marks the largest investment in agriculture for many years. And furthermore it represents the start of an
investment package which will continue to grow. Plus it also marks a significant year for
investment in tourism, which will receive over $10 million.
Mr Speaker, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism
are only part of the equation. If we are
to deliver the services our people deserve, we need increased revenue, revenue
generated by a thriving economy. We need
economic growth.
Finance and commerce are busy with reforms Mr Speaker, reforms
that will enable businesses to flourish.
This includes donor funded technical support from specialists in
business-licensing and tax reform.
Donors are also helping businesses by building roads, bridges and
wharves – the necessary infrastructure for economic growth.
Mr Speaker, to capitalize on these investments and legal
reforms, credit is needed. Access to
credit will help unlock this country’s potential. As my honorable colleague the Minister of
Finance has already stated, this is exactly what the government is doing.
Firstly, Mr Speaker, ten million dollars ($10 million)
will be invested in a credit guarantee scheme.
Operated through commercial banks, people with feasible business plans
will be able to borrow without collateral.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, five million dollars ($5 million)
is being made available for the extension of banking services to our rural
areas. This will give our rural people
more opportunities to participate in economic development in the rural areas.
Thirdly Mr Speaker, three million dollars ($3 million)
will be invested in business training.
This will equip people with the skills to build and grow their
businesses.
Mr Speaker, together these three schemes will provide
people with opportunities to save, invest and grow businesses. It will enable people to improve their own
lives, whether they be farmers, foresters, fishermen, or even tourism
operators.
Mr Speaker, by my honorable colleague for East Are Are raised
many issues, including support to forest industries and the establishment of
credit institutions.
Mr Speaker, the government is not targeting any single
sector but giving all people an opportunity to improve their own lives. We are offering access to credit, access to
banking services, and access to business training.
So, what if someone wants to invest in forest machinery
and grow a timber business? With this
support he can develop a realistic business plan, get credit to grow his
business, and get banking support to manage his finances. The $10 million credit guarantee scheme is
central to this, to allow him to borrow from banks with minimal collateral.
Mr Speaker, this is a big difference from the past, and
simply we are providing cash to businesses.
Businesses that were never viable in the first place - businesses whose
owners had friends in high places. Mr
Speaker, we will not waste money like in the past, but give people the access
to opportunities. We will give them a
chance.
Yet Mr Speaker, as part of the bottom-up approach, this
government will also invest heavily in the provision of services to the rural
areas. For example, I am sure every one
in this honorable House recognize government housing as a major constraint to
the delivery of rural services. That is
why nearly $13 million of government revenue will be spent on housing for
government officers in the provinces.
The very location of these houses Mr Speaker, well
illustrates the government’s commitment to development outside
This is just in the coming months. More houses are planned over the coming
years. Honorable Members will note that
the development estimates also has funding for a strategic housing and office
assessment across the provinces. This
will enable government to invest in provinces based fairly upon need and on
viability. For too long politics has driven
this process. We intend to make sure
things are done properly.
Challenges for the future Mr Speaker. You will recall at the start of my speech I
mentioned the great progress this government has made in implementing
development projects. Yet despite a real
push over recent months, significant challenges remain. And we have all heard excuses.
As many will be aware, one of the problems is
coordination across the government.
Indeed, it was highlighted b y the Public Accounts Committee Report, and
I thank them for the excellent work in making sure this budget is of highest
quality.
In addressing this coordination issue, Mr Speaker, this
government will continue to strengthen and improve efforts towards integration
of the recurrent and development estimates.
This will not only improve the understanding and coherence of the budget
process, but make it simpler and easier for all concerned. This result will be a more efficient budget
process and the better use of our scarce resources.
Secondly Mr Speaker, a major problem is project
preparation and implementation. All must
concede implementation remains a weakness across the government. My Ministry will thus introduce a project
planning guide shortly after this budget is passed. Coupled to extensive training in how to use
this guide, and ongoing support, this will enable officers to plan and deliver
projects.
Thirdly Mr Speaker, I will lead from my Ministry, a
coordinating Taskforce that will ensure the effective and timely implementation
of the 2007 Development Estimates.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, may I remind this honorable House
that this 2007 Development Estimates is rurally focused and premised on the
bottom-up approach. It reflects this
government’s commitment to the rural people, and we are confident these
investments will contribute to improve the lives of our fellow Solomon
Islanders.
Mr Speaker, as mentioned earlier, this budget represents
a big improvement from past development budgets. The substantial increase of (99.5%) in
government commitment to new investments particularly in infrastructure and
agriculture is indeed a demonstration of how serious the government is, in
implementing the bottom-up approach to development.
The
government is grateful of the continuing support of our development partners as
reflected in the overall increase in their funding. Sir, I believe we are in the right direction
to not only deliver quality services to our people, but providing opportunities
for them to be part of development and allowing them to participate in it.
Mr Speaker, as this Bill is now before the house, Mr
Speaker, I invite constructive deliberations from the floor of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, I
thank you and may God bless
Sitting suspended for lunch break
Hon SANGA: Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to
contribute to the debate of the 2007 Appropriation Bill 2007.
Sir,
let me first thank all the officials within the Public Service who had worked
so hard to put the documents and all other supporting documents together.
Mr
Speaker, I will be brief in my contribution.
This budget is Government’s plan of expenditures on the policies which
it regards as its priorities in the 2007 fiscal year. They are either foundational or are building
blocks on which important medium to longer term programs will be
referenced. The Government therefore
hopes that in this fiscal year it will raise the projected revenue in order to
finance the expected services or government programs also indicated in the
budget.
Obviously,
the budget will be supported by the donor community, but it is clear that this
budget signals a strong message. That it
is time Solomon Islanders must learn to finance their own budget. It is time for Solomon Islanders to work hard
to earn their living and not to remain heavily dependent on donors as seemed to
have been case in the past. It is time
that Solomon Islanders must be given the opportunity to be innovative as to how
they must create wealth from their own resources. Mr Speaker that type of message underpins the
budget and this House must learn to accept it first.
Mr
Speaker, the budget comes up with a lot of expectations. Go through the development estimates sector by
sector and this document will tell you that something is expected. You reference this with a province, and it will
tell you that certain sector is tied specifically to that province. If you care to make a small analogy, you will
realize that this is based on comparative advantage unique to a particular
province. This approach does make sense
to me.
Mr
Speaker, the budget may speak volumes of good intentions. It may come up with good estimates based on government
performance for the last fiscal year. But,
if the Public Service does not make any commitment or makes half-hearted
commitment to government policies, if officers do not change their work
attitudes; if officers are not innovative; if they do not have feelings for the
people they are serving; if they do not see their work as an important
ingredient for nation building; if public officers do not learn new skills or
are not equipped to the capacity to deliver services; and if the services are
not delivered in a timely manner, then all the good intentions in this budget
will be a futile exercise. Mr Speaker,
the point is the Public Service is a very important player in how the budget
will be implemented this year.
Mr
Speaker, I will confine my debate on the Government Work Force – the entire
Public Service – teachers and police inclusive.
Mr
Speaker, in this current fiscal year we will have 4,036 positions in the Civil
Service component of Government recurrent Establishment. This represents an increase of 14.23% over
last year’s establishment. Mr Speaker,
for teachers, Government will pay for 6,430 teachers inclusive of secondary and
primary school teachers. Sir, this again
is an increase of 14% over the 2006 establishment for teachers. For Police, Mr. Speaker, we will have a Force
of 1,433, an increase of 2% over Police Force establishment for 2006. Mr Speaker, this is discounting the RAMSI
component of the Force, to put the picture into context.
These
general increases impact on this year’s budget by further $103.3 million SBD in
personal emoluments; that is salary and wages.
Mr Speaker, this is a significant increase which represents – 46.1% in
budgetary allocation for personal emoluments. One would argue - and I think the Member for
East Are Are made the point that the budget is increasing the Public Service,
and on that score is going against the trend to trim the size of the Public
Service world over. I think he is right.
But I should point out that contrary to
the views that others hold, this Government believes that given the spread of this
country and the demographic features of our population, which are unique to us,
the Government is not oblige to follow the conventional trend. Instead, the government believes having a
right size of the Service is the way to go, given the difficulties that are
unique to us. The Government would like
to ensure that it provides for the right level of manpower required in all ministries.
By doing so, ministries outputs may be
maximized.
Mr
Speaker, because we have done so, Accounting Officers must ensure that they
carry out recruitment exercises immediately after the budget is cleared by this
Parliament in order to get the workers at post and implement Government
policies straightaway.
Mr
Speaker important to implementing Government budget is the issue of efficiency
of the Government workforce – the Public Service. How can we convert the current Public Service into
a professional and efficient Public Service?
One that is creative and innovative? One that is visionary, proactive and
responsive; one that sees its role as being responsible for creating the right
environment for private sector growth, and one that is focus on delivery of
less costly but quality service to citizens in a timely manner. Mr Speaker, this country is looking for that
kind of Public Service.
Sir,
if we are to find that Public Service the Government must be prepared to
address key issues.
First,
the Government or any Government for that matter must revisit the relationship
between the structures that make up the whole Government machinery. At the
moment we have structures that are quite independent of each other yet we
expect outcomes of government programs to meet our expectations.
Mr
Speaker, let me give an example. Governments
after governments came up with good policy intentions. These are prescribed and documented. They expect the Public Service to implement
and work miracles on their policies. But
there is no way of follow-up or discussions with the policy makers and the
implementers. What the policy makers
usually do is to wait for reports to be made to Cabinet. By the time Cabinet gets the information about
the progress of programs, their tenure of office has lapsed. So the government has no real control over the
implementation process of their policies.
At
the other end of the spectrum, the Public Service Commission who legally is the
employer of the Government work force has no role to play in ensuring that government
policies for which that body appoints officers to implement are empowered with
the role to monitor and report on government programs to the executive government.
Mr
Speaker, this Government will address these problems in the course of this
year. Result orientation will be the
driver for change in this regard, and the Government has taken a decision to
form a Cabinet Development Committee to work with key ministries in monitoring
the budget performances throughout the course of the year. Mr. Speaker my Ministry is looking into the
issue of the Public Service moving away from being a mechanistic to a more flexible
organization.
Mr
Speaker, the second key issue that the government or any governments must address
has to do with putting the right people with the relevant skill and the
capacity to perform at post – that is the ability to deliver quality and timely
service, the ability to provide sound policy advice when required.
Mr
Speaker, we inherit a Public Service that has declined over the years in
performance. When a Minister asks for
advice or for certain actions, he expects the best advice – one that informed
decision can be based on or action done in a timely manner.
Mr
Speaker, that response is usually difficult to find in many quarters of the
Public Service now. People are absorbed
in routine work and very few possess the ability to do critical analysis of
specialized tasks. Mr Speaker I do not
expect this budget will solve all the problems relating to skill and capacity
in the current fiscal year. Neither do I
expect the problem of capacity to be solved in the medium term. This is an area which must be addressed every
time and all the time, and it is important that it is recognized now.
Mr
Speaker, I wish to point out that on this score, the Government has accepted in
principle a report that was done by RAMSI in collaboration with the different
stakeholders within the Public Service during the last Government’s tenure of
office. This is mainly to do with
capacity building for both the Central and Provincial Governments. But I think this Government has still to do
more.
Mr
Speaker in this regard, my Ministry will further look into taking the Public
Service beyond RAMSI especially in the area of capacity building. This is to ensure that our Public Service is
modernized taking into account the recent technological changes and adaptive to
best work practices taking place globally.
Mr
Speaker, in this regard, my Ministry is looking seriously into the introduction
of e-governance. This will streamline
inter-agencies and customer relations with the Government in fast-tracking
enquiries from government. For best work
practices and skills development, the Government is in the process of
consulting with and linking our
Mr
Speaker, the third key issue that Government must address is the conduct of
industrial relationship with the unions. Industrial relations mishandled can
result in unintended consequences on the budget. Mr Speaker, on this issue the Government is
unprotected and the laws are not in its favor. At any point in time, for example, when a
union wants to get off work when it is not happy – as long as it serves a 28 days
notice it can withdraw its labor as if it owns the own employment.
Mr
Speaker, this is not going to be the case with this government. Strikes, as I alluded to earlier, are costly
to the economy and in the case of Public Service a days strike by teachers, for
example, means millions of dollars worth in man-hour losses. The Government will tighten its industrial
relation laws so that when a union announces that it will go on strike on a
particular day, the Treasury should immediately effect a stop - pay exercise of
all striking union members of that particular union and only restore their pay
when the union advice of the time its members return to work.
Mr
Speaker, the Government expects responsible unionism within the Public Service.
The Government expects to conduct
industrial relations with unions or associations that are lawful. In that regard, the Government is concerned
that some unions within the Government work force either have fallen outside of
their recognition agreements or have never been registered at all and are
pressing Government to sign agreements with them.
Mr
Speaker, when Government deals with a union there will eventually be financial
and budgetary implications. Therefore,
in order for every one to competently deal with each other, the Government
insists that unions within the Public Service must ensure that their existence
and operations meet the minimum requirements of law. Some unions must work hard to comply with these
requirements.
Mr
Speaker, also critical to industrial relation is a salary and wages policy. My Ministry is looking into this. The policy is yet to be defined but it will
provide a framework which should set out the principles that will guide the Government
in dealing with all Government workers salaries. Right now the practice seems to point to have
these principles clearly defined.
Sir,
on salaries per se, I wish to state that this Government did resolve the issue
of re-leveling of public officers and teachers salaries last year but the
government does not expect to review salaries this year nor in the coming
years.
Mr
Speaker, the fourth key issue for Public Service efficiency is security for all
public officers whilst working and after they retire. Mr Speaker, public officers’ social security
was taken over by the Solomon Islands National Provident Fund when it was
established. Despite their substantial
contribution to that Fund, public officers’ social security has not been
adequately provided for. When a public
officer knocks off his/her job early to attend a side employment, it is because
his or her salary perhaps is not sufficient to meet other domestic needs –
therefore the officer has to find some other ways to make money. Mr Speaker, when an officer nearing retirement,
for example, no longer concentrates on work but is doing something else during
the hours for which he is paid by the Government, then it is possible that the
officer knows that in a few years he will be out of work and must therefore
prepare himself for his retirement.
Mr
Speaker, the sense of insecurity whilst working and after retirement has a lot
of bearing on the level of commitment of public officers and the use of their
time. Since the introduction of the
Solomon Islands National Provident Fund, successive governments were
inadvertently negligent about the social security of its workers.
This
Government believes that if its workers feel secure whilst working and know
that they will be looked after on retirement they will work faithfully – they
will commit all their time and energy to the service of this nation. They will not be bothered about doing
something else that will compromise or compete for their time.
This
Government will introduce a new Foundation which provides for Welfare
Enhancement for public officers whilst working and a Pension Scheme for public
officers to look after their family on retirement. This Government will see those who serve the
country during the prime years of their life not pushed back into poverty when
they retire.
Mr
Speaker, I am happy to inform this House that Cabinet has given the green light
for the drafting of the new law to establish this Foundation, and it will be
introduced hopefully in the next sitting of Parliament.
The
effect of this new law however, is not be reflected under the current budget
but for purposes of commitment and work efficiency, I am hopeful that by
announcing this development, public officers should now move away from
compromising their time and give all their best to implementing Government
programs under the budget.
Mr
Speaker, the fifth key issue is work attitude of officers. The Public Service is made up of individuals. Rules are there for officers to be guided by. But, if officers do not have the right
attitude towards their work – if they turn up at nine instead of eight in the
morning all the time – if officers go to the markets all the time during
working hours or knock off at
The Government
expects Accounting Officers to discipline officers with bad work attitudes or
show them the exit door if there is no improvement demonstrated by those with
bad work attitudes. Lateness to work or
knocking off early is a big concern to this Government because of the
inefficiency it creates. Responsible
officers are asked to lead by example and come hard on bad work attitudes. At the same time, if there has to be a change
in work attitudes it is the officer that must do his best to change his ways.
Mr Speaker, let me underline the
sixth key issue. This has to do with
innovation of the Public Service. Mr
Speaker, we inherit a very cultured Public Service from
Mr Speaker, the demand for service
by citizens has changed so much – they expect better service and quality
service; they look for friendly and easily accessible service. Mr Speaker, in order to meet these demands,
the Public Service must be innovative. It
must not continue to live in the past. Officials
must be futuristic in their views and be visionaries. They must come up with new ideas to improve
service delivery and efficiency. My
Ministry is working on a conference on Innovative Service Delivery in
post-conflict
Mr
Speaker, when we look at the bigger picture of the Public Service and ask
ourselves how we should get this huge organization improved on its efficiency,
I believe these key issues that I have just outlined are very important.
Sir
let me briefly make a couple of points on my Ministry. Mr Speaker, the projected number of vacancies
that are yet to be filled under the 2007 Establishment is 2,093. If we were to budget for these vacancies the
Government will require an additional $60.7 million for personal emoluments in
this fiscal year. Mr Speaker, although
with good intentions one would have liked to fill all these positions
immediately, experience has taught us that recruitment processes take a while. Therefore, in order to avoid un-necessarily
tying funds on these vacancies, the Government will not find that extra $60.7
million. Instead, my Ministry is given $10
million to administer towards recruitment for vacant posts in this fiscal year.
As soon as the budget is passed, my
Ministry will come up with a quota for each ministry to deal with recruitments
straightaway.
Mr
Speaker, I mentioned earlier that there will be links with the Singapore Civil
Service and the
Mr
Speaker, I wish to also underline that the
Mr
Speaker, it will also be appropriate to note that IPAM is putting together an
induction course for the 50 new officers who will be assisting the 50
constituencies as soon as they are recruited.
Mr
Speaker, three important positions are introduced under the Ministry’s
establishment for 2007. First, there
will be a post for Expatriate Affairs.
Mr Speaker, my ministry has just reported on a counter-part arrangement
with RAMSI personal filling in-line and supernumerary positions, and it is my
Government’s policy that there should be local counter-parts identified to
understudy the expatriates with clear timeframes for the locals to take over. Mr Speaker, the Expatriate Affairs officer
will manage the counterpart arrangement.
The
second position has to do with Gender Officer at the Director’s level. With expectations under international labour
conventions on equal employment opportunity, it is necessary to create this
post in an employing agency such as the Public Service Ministry. The office will be responsible for policy
advice on gender related issues affecting the Public Service as an organization.
Third,
Mr Speaker, is the public social security and welfare officer also at the
Director’s level. Mr Speaker, the
officer will be responsible for policy research and initial administration of
the new Foundation law.
Mr
Speaker, I need to point out that the condition of service for government
workers has also lagged behind and despite the allocations under last year’s
supplementary appropriation bill, a lot of areas are yet to be addressed. Mr Speaker, my Ministry has set aside $1.5
million for the review and publication of the General Orders. Once the review is made, a lot of the
expenditures will be absorbed in the ministries.
In
conclusion Mr Speaker, I wish to say that this is a challenging budget. In the case of my Ministry, it is balancing
Government priorities with making workers happy and making the Public Service
more efficient. The 2007 budget is my
Government’s first budget and I trust we will do our utmost best to implement
it within the bounds of the document.
Mr
Speaker, thank you for giving me for the opportunity and I support the Bill.
Mr FONO: Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me the
floor of this Chamber to contribute briefly to the 2007 Appropriation Bill 2007
moved by the respected Minister of Finance and Treasury on Tuesday 6th
February in his 2007 Budget Speech.
Mr Speaker, from the outset let me thank the Minister of
Finance for his foresight and vision in moving this Appropriation Bill this
year 2007, and not last year in December 2006, as has always been the
conventional practice of delivering annual budget.
Also, I wish to thank the staff of the Budget Unit, the Department
of National Planning and all Accounting Officers within the government for
putting together a budget for this year within 10 months since the Grand
Coalition for Change Government came into power.
Sir, it has also reflected seriousness and commitment of
the Government for Change to put together a credible budget for 2007.
Mr Speaker, let me also, at the outset, congratulate the
Government through the hardworking Minister of Finance for delivering his first
budget speech in the House for the present Government as has been alluded to by
a lot of speakers.
Mr
Speaker, it is also pleasing to note that the current government’s aim is to
create a society that is equitable, trustworthy and forward looking. And in his own words I quote: ‘we are
committed to strengthening the country’s democratic constitutional and
community institutions and structures as well as its economy’.
This
is well said, however, how actions over the recent past are quite
different. We continue to undermine the
very democratic institutions that are provided for under the Constitution to
promote democratic values and principles.
Undermining institutions like the Solomon Islands Police Force who
carries out investigations into our doings.
Other institutions, like the Judiciary are being tampered with, bringing
into question their impartiality and integrity.
Sir, a case in point is the withdrawal of the charges
against the suspended Attorney General by the Acting Attorney General who was also
acting DPP when the substantive DPP was on annual leave. Again, the withdrawal or the legal term “nolle prosqui”, discontinuing of cases
in the Magistrates against one of the Ministers, and again against one of the
political cronies of the ruling party.
Just look at the front page of Solomon Star today. If that is true it really implies a serious
foul in the judiciary system of this nation.
Therefore, it is very important that investigations should continue to
take place by responsible authorities to look at whether perjury or what is
known as interfering into the judicial system of our nation is taking place so
that justice is done. Because, Mr
Speaker, as we all know no one is above the law; whoever contravenes our laws must
be brought to justice.
Mr Speaker, whilst the Minister’s speech outlines the
three components to the government’s rural development strategy such as (1)
community consultation and grassroots policy development, (2) the effective
sectoral strategies to improve access to economic opportunities for our rural
people, (3) building the capacity of the provincial governments to deliver
services to rural communities and promote business development.
Sir, these three components are very good. I strongly support these components. Honestly, I have not seen any large budgetary
estimates that correlate to this broad policy statement that the government
should implement or would implement in order to achieve these policy
objectives. The budgetary allocations
under both the recurrent and development estimates are insignificant to create
any change and stimulate real economic growth in the country.
Sir,
I will touch on the financial and economic situation of the country. Whilst there is a lot of potential for economic
growth and economic prosperity in the country, the political and investment
climate is not conducive enough for investor confidence. After the recent ethnic tension and upon the
arrival of RAMSI in July 2003, there were a lot of efforts by the government,
the private sector and donors or our development partners to build both
investor confidence and donor confidence.
Of course, this was achieved in 2004 and 2005, however, the recent
events of rioting and looting in Honiara in April 2006 certainly puts us back
on the high risk analysis path, as a nation with very high risk to carry on
business or investment for that matter.
Furthermore, Mr Speaker, the recent actions and
statements by our Prime Minister and our Foreign Minister can also be seen as
causing a lot of uncertainty amongst foreign investors especially, the current
diplomatic standoff between Canberra and Honiara. The statement by the honorable Prime Minister
to review RAMSI or remove Australian troops or soldiers from RAMSI is a case in
point.
Mr Speaker, furthermore the rearming of the Solomon
Islands Police Force or even the Close Protection Unit added more fear and
uncertainty to the situation. Whilst these
statements be of a sovereign government, it creates a lot of fear and uncertainty
amongst foreign investors and our development partners as to its long term
implication.
Therefore, Mr Speaker, whilst the Minister of Finance
outlines other issues as challenges facing our national economy, his speech
fails short of the most important challenge facing our nation and the national
economy, and that is the law and order situation. The rule of law in this country should be of
paramount consideration by the government.
Mr Speaker, the law and order situation in our country is
very fragile and history might repeat itself if, and I said ‘if’ our situation
is not stabilized or improved. Mr
Speaker, if the Australian component of RAMSI is withdrawn, I am afraid to say
here that the law and order situation will be in doubt and the rule of law will
see an increase in lawlessness and a state of anarchy as has been experienced
during the height of the ethnic tension.
Mr Speaker, such a situation will have negative
implications to our national economy as our business sector will shrink or
force to withdraw or businesses will force to withdraw their operations or
their business activities. Therefore, Mr
Speaker, our economic climate is very dependent on the law and order situation
of our country and the investor confidence attributed to the socio-economic and
political situation of our country.
Mr Speaker, on Financial Services - I have noted or I
have notice a considerable improvement in the financial institutions lending
policies. With the arrival of the credit
corporation and its competitiveness, there seems to be some flexibility in
their lease financing and other financial institutions like our three
commercial banks are beginning to open up and adapt flexible lending policies.
Mr Speaker, this is a welcome move in the right
direction. However, sir, they need to
bring down their lending rates from 16 or 18 per cent to even around 10 per
cent, as well as increase interest on term deposits from 0.5 per cent to say 5
or 6 per cent. At the moment it does not
create any incentives for our people to invest or put savings into the bank
because interest rate is very low, some even less than 1 per cent. Interest rates play a very important role in
any economic development of a county.
Mr Speaker, whilst I understand there is surplus supply
of money or excess liquidity in our financial system, such a move by our
country’s financial institutions to increase their interest rates on bank
deposits and reduce their lending rates will create added incentives for our
private sector to use the banks for savings and borrow from banks for
productive investment and business expansion, especially when there is no
significant support to our private sector in the budget.
Mr Speaker, the other area of concern is for the present
financial institutions to look at decentralizing some of their services
throughout the country. This is to allow
banking services to be provided even in the rural areas so as to allow our
rural people participate in economic activities in the rural areas. This is over and above smaller financial
institutions like the rural based credit unions now currently operating in some
of our rural areas.
Mr Speaker, I will now touch on my overview of the 2007 Budget. I will now turn to the 2007 budget as was
presented in this House. As I have said
it is the first budget of this current Government and I congratulate them for
bringing this budget to be debated in the first quarter of this year. Because of constitutional requirements this
side of the House may need to support this budget otherwise comes end of March
we will face constitutional crisis because the government will not have the
support or have the power to continue to spend or if the Parliament does not
pass this budget authorizing the government to incur expenditure for the
government services.
However, Mr Speaker, I wish to register here my concerns
and disappointment that this much awaited budget of the Grand Coalition for
Change will not fulfill our people’s expectations.
Mr Speaker, there is a lot of perception out there. Ministers, if you go down the streets you
will hear people saying they are waiting for the budget to pass and they will
get it. This sort of expectation needs
to be explained thoroughly to our people because their perception is that there
is a lot in this budget that the government will deliver in line with poverty
policy or the policy of some of the parties of the Coalition that was promoted
during the last election that we will have a dole system like in Australia and
New Zealand for those people without jobs. Mr Speaker, these are people’s perception on
this budget and what the government is going to deliver.
I
congratulate the Minister of Finance for his explanation during one of the
talk-back shows for rightly telling the people that the government has no funds
to give out as grants like the system that was done by the Ministry of
Commerce. That needs to go out so that
our people change their perceptions that after this budget is passed we have
tons of money to give to our people. Mr
Speaker, this perception by our people needs to be explained thoroughly to them
so that they do not have the perception that there is free money to be given
out after the budget is passed.
As I have said there are certain areas that I have
concern on in the budget that I will touch on.
Firstly, I agree with my colleague MP for East Are Are that the budget
is Public Service driven, and I describe it as top heavy public sector budget and
not much for the productive sector. For
example, in the new spending measures, I can only see $1.1 million for support
for the productive sector at the national level, apart from the $16 million for
provincial level support, whilst $92.5 million is allocated for a stronger
public sector. This top heavy public
sector budget is not in line with the bottom up approach the government
continues to advocate as a policy.
Mr
Speaker, if we look at the payroll costs for 2007 it stands at $327.4 million,
an increase from $224 million in 2006 or an increase of $103.4 million in
payroll cost alone. This amounts to 37
percent of the total government revenue of $886.7 million. This strategy really puts into question all
the reforms, the downsizing, the rightsizing, or whatever sizing successive
governments have been putting in place or implementing in their reform programs
in the Public Service. One would only
conclude that successive government’ efforts to downsize or right size the public
service is a waste of time and resources.
Mr Speaker, if we are not careful we are feeding a 21 headed monster in
the public sector.
Sir,
after independence some years back one of the then Ministers of Finance
described the budget as a 15 headed monster.
Now it is 21 including the Prime Minister’s Office, there are 21
Ministries now that is taking up much of the share of this budget and nothing
is left for the private sector. The Private
sector is very important because it should create employment so that they pay
tax to the government, and not so much on the government. When the government increases employment they
do not pay tax, only book value is what we are seeing, we are not paying any
revenue to the government. Sustainability
of our economic growth is in the private sector or the productive sector. That is is very important.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, the allocation in the budget for
the productive sector is significant to make any positive impact in the private
sector of this country. Just look at
support for agriculture, tourism, mining - the productive sectors areas, it is
very small. Another one is the
allocation of $3 million support to the rehabilitation of copra and cocoa
industries. This allocation is in
significant, even one constituency can use that amount and the not the whole
nation.
Mr Speaker, there are some private initiatives by the private
sector that they have been doing over the last four years or three years -
cocoa seedlings.
A
private initiative by one of our private companies produce seedlings for rural
farmers, they have been investing over a US$100,000 per year over the last four
years, and it contributes very well towards that sector. Just look at the allocation for industry or
manufacturing sector, I cannot see it in the budget too. The primary sector is important but the
secondary sector of manufacturing and processing is very important to any
economic development.
Let
me tell the government that I think we have to move away from the primary
sector to the secondary sector and manufacturing because it adds value to
exports, it creates further employment for our people. But I do not see any substantive contribution
to the manufacturing or the secondary sector - the manufacturing and processing
industries of our nation.
A
very good case in point is how
Our
industries should now be looking at further downstream processing. The government’s policy should be addressing
and geared towards creating incentives for our private sector industries. Whilst there is some rural financial support
channeled through the Central Bank, direct assistance or support towards this
industry is very important.
I
have yet to see any government programs targeting innovation within the private
sector. Give awards to the private
sector people. I encourage the Minister
of Finance to consider that. Give annual
awards to businesses that perform and produce up to excellence - innovation,
inventions. Incentives should be
provided for our industries so that we move on from the primary level to the
secondary level or even the tertiary level.
The allocation of $462,337 for Bina Industrial Deep Seaport development
is a laughing stock.
Sir, is this the budget allocation the people of Malaita have
been waiting for, may I ask? In the 2006
budget there was $2 million allocation for this under Commerce and $5million
under Lands for land acquisition. It is
only this government that failed to implement this project over the last 10
months since it came into office. The
funds were available but they did not implement it.
Sir,
with this allocation of $462,000 this year, I am very surprised as to our
seriousness in developing this project.
This development comes under the West Kwaio Constituency and my good
friend, the Member for
I
understand this project should get off the ground this year with acquiring of
the land, compensation for relocation of residential houses at the seafront, a
further land survey and designing of the physical planning and site development
of this area. Yet this allocation of
just over $400,000 does not speak well of the policy we are trying to
decentralize developments to the provinces and not so much in
Mr
Speaker, if we want to address the root cause of this ethnic tension and social
unrest, our government and development partners need to create this major
project on Malaita to allow for economic activities to take place and create
job opportunities for our people who are currently looking for employment here
in Honiara and in other provinces. This
is the cracks of the matter.
This allocation of only $462,000
for Bina Industrial centre of Malaita does not show the serious commitment by
this government to decentralize development projects to other provinces from
Thirdly, Mr Speaker, I have not seen any budgetary
allocation for provincial shipping grants.
Sir, our country is an island nation with vast oceans and will always
depend on shipping services to move people, goods and services from one island
to another.
Mr Speaker, if successive governments have given funds to
provinces like Choiseul, Isabel, Western, Temotu, Malaita and Renbell to fund
their provincial shipping or constituency shipping, why can’t this government
assist other provinces like Guadalcanal, Makira or other constituencies for
shipping services for our people. Is it
because of lack of that this year and last year as well? Some have taken loans to get their own
shipping services like my good friend, the Minister for Home Affairs, the MP
for
Sir, rural shipping services is of paramount importance
for our transportation needs of our rural farmers in line with the present
government’s policy on rural development.
Our different islands make it necessary that government must allocate
funds to provide support to even private sector shipping.
Mr Speaker, although there is a national transport policy,
the legislation to establish this national transport fund has not come to Parliament
yet. I call on my good Minister for
Transport to bring this piece of legislation for approval so that it is in line
with section 100(2) of our national constitution. Don’t just establish it in the budget when
there is no approval for establishing of special funds.
Sir, it is important that the government allocates funds
for provincial shipping. I do not see
this in the budget and that is why I am raising it as a concern for our
people. If successive governments can
provide funds and establish shipping services, why not this government.
Hon Lilo (interjecting): They are lying at Ranandi.
Hon Fono: Failure is not the end; even if we fail we
still must go forward because we are a developing nation.
Fourthly, Mr Speaker, the state owned enterprises (SOEs) -
government owned organizations set up under acts of Parliament. If the government is to withdraw annual
subventions, government needs to bring their respective acts to Parliament or
legislation for amendment so that we do not provide annual subventions. I believe some of these state owned
enterprises have legal provisions that government must provide annual
subventions to subsidize their operations.
Sir, SOEs like SIBC and CEMA provide a very vital link
with rural people in the rural areas, hence, the withdrawal of their annual
subventions does not go in line with the bottom up approach policy of the
government. For example, the SIBC plays a
vital role in informing our rural populace of government policies, national
issues, church services. With the government’s
withdrawal of its annual subvention, the cost of SIBC charges now has increased.
There may be no longer live broadcast
services for our rural people on Sundays because of this cut on subvention.
Similarly,
as far as CEMA is concern, CEMA plays a very important regulatory function for
our exporters. At the moment it is no
longer exporting commodities. Its
revenue is depended on rents of houses or properties that it has, and with this
recent government policy initiative, do you know what, they will be laying off
their staff or they will be closing down hence determining the quality for
export will be compromised. And if that
is compromised export earnings of the nation will also go down because we will
not be able to meet international standards on commodities that for export. Export is important to our nation building,
and if we do not do that our currency will really go down. Therefore, I urge the government to re-look into
this policy and assist the state owned enterprises that desperately need the government’s
support.
Fifthly, Mr Speaker, the implementation of government
funded projects or SIG projects in the development estimates. This process needs a very big improvement or
overhaul. There needs to be some
improvements in the implementation process.
Whilst
there are surplus funds at Finance and Treasury, the SIG funded projects are
not implemented by line ministries. May
be coordination at National Planning is weak and needs strengthening or the
procedures and steps to follow by line ministries are not understood by Accounting
Officers or directors of divisions.
Mr
Speaker, the government needs to overhaul this process and get these officers
from line ministries some training or capacity building on procedures and
capacity building on implementation of projects so that projects that are in
the development budget and funded by the government must be implemented this
year so that they do not reappear next year as has been the case.
Sir,
the implementation process needs to be improved, and I believe the Minister of
National Planning is taking note of this suggestion so that improvement is done
to the implementation process.
Mr Speaker, my sixth point is that while there is
considerable increase in the education budget, it failed to address the real
issues affecting our education sector. The
Education sector is very important to a developing nation like ours. Whilst I
see there will be additional 1,000 teachers to be recruited, I failed to see
any provision for increases in their salaries, terms and conditions.
Sir, teachers are the lowest paid public officers in our
country. I understand the previous
government mandated a task force to review teachers’ salaries, terms and
conditions to harmonize it with other public sector unions’ terms and
conditions.
Sir, at the moment even domestic servants, the Ministers’
drivers are getting a much higher pay than the certificate holders – the teachers. Are you aware of that, Mr Minister? Drivers and orderlies are paid at Level 3 of
the Public Service scale. This is more
than teachers who are certificate holders. This is very surprising.
Teachers
go through training to become a teacher.
After secondary they go to the SICHE and get the qualification to become
a teacher. This is a demoralizing
factor. It is a disincentive to them. I have a lot of wantok teachers who are
complaining to me about their pay. The
government needs to harmonize their structure so that all public employees
unions are getting the same salaries even at whatever level or whatever
structure but it is their profession. Such
areas might be different but their salary structures need to be harmonized so
that it is an incentive to our teachers who are very hardworking. Some of them spent even their own time at
night preparing for lessons. They need
to be compensated fairly. As I said
sometimes these things are a disincentive to our teachers. Their salaries need to be harmonized with the
Public Service, Police and Nurses so that they are paid at the same level.
Mr Speaker, the last government’s policy is that all primary
school fees are subsidized by the government.
It is your policy, sir, under your leadership and parents of this nation
are enjoying this subsidy to primary schools.
I hope the government paid that subsidy last year or does the government
do away with it? If the government
continues it is a good policy that helps parents.
Mr Speaker, I would have though that the government
should look at subsidizing secondary school fees to help our parents. There is a disparity in school fees in church
schools. For example, in Su’u and
Betikama, the fees of Form 5, 6, 7 is almost $5,000 whilst in government run schools
it is just $1,000 plus. Why the
difference? I fail to see in the budget any
government assistance to subsidize school fees in secondary schools. I think the government should even take over Form
6 and 7. Take the burden from
parents. It is now becoming very very
expensive at that highest level.
A
review was commissioned by the last government to find out how much it costs
the education system. I hope the current
Minister who was the PS under the last government continues to follow that up
and implement it. Bring it to Cabinet so
that the government policy is changed to help our parents.
Education
continues to remain a priority sector of this nation. I believe whatever government comes in education
is very important so that we subsidize costs and allow church run schools
reduce their school fees like government run schools KGVI or Waimapuru. There is a big disparity.
The
education sector is very important and I am calling on my good Minister to take
that review and make a policy change in government so that secondary school is
subsidized.
The seventh point and my final point, the Minister of
Finance told this House in his budget speech that this current government has
allocated its tithes or one tenth of its revenue for the churches. Sir, I fail to see any budget allocation both
in the recurrent and development budget for this. Where is it? I cannot see it? Do not create false hopes to our people
especially our churches. Lying or
telling lie is a sin. The Bible talks
against sin. Mr Minister of Finance, do
not tell lies to our people.
Mr Speaker: Order, order, withdraw the word lie.
Hon Fono: I withdraw that, Mr Speaker, but we must tell
the truth. That is my point. We must tell nothing but the truth in this
House. If government revenue is $800million
where is the $80million for tithes to churches?
Where in the budget is that reflected?
Sir,
if the Minister is referring to government support to churches as grant
allocation to church run schools, clinics, hospitals like Atoifi, Goldie
hospital, church-run rural training centres, these assistances have been going
on for the past years. Successive
governments also meet those costs too.
It is not new. Let this nation
know that successive governments also support churches through that
allocation. If it is tithes then it must
appear under the development budget or the recurrent budget and the tithes must
go to the churches to pay the bishops, the clergies and others. That is the proper way of paying tithes. The missions that churches send overseas to
spread the good news, that is the way tithes are being used.
The
statement of the Minister of Finance is not true. Successive governments have been allocating
funds to churches to help church-run schools and church-run hospitals. It is not new so that we boast about it. I look at the recurrent budget and the
development estimates but I fail to see any classification on the word ‘tithes’. May be in the Committee of Supply the
Minister might tell the House where that allocation is so that it reflects his
statement. Otherwise I still maintain
that he is not telling the truth in this chamber.
Finally, Mr Speaker, I have raised very important
national issues and concerns which I believe the Grand Coalition Government
will take on board to consider in its next budget or in future supplementary
budgets. The budget document should
reflect the government’s policies. This
is my contribution to this very important Appropriation Bill.
As I
said from the outset, I fully support the bottom up approach advocated by the
present government because it is not new.
In my humble view, bottom up approach means wider consultation on public
policies, budgeting process must be from the rural areas, consultation with
provinces on budgeting, planning and its implementation. For example, even the recruitment of 50
development officers is top down. It is
top down because it is still the Cabinet that decides on it and then it pushes
it down to us. There was never any
consultation with MPs neither the provinces over these recruitments. I doubt it very much.
I am
raising this because even some government backbenchers are also asking questions. This only shows there was no consultation at the
Caucus level. There needs to be wider
consultation on such public policies so that our people are aware of it, and it
is not the top down approach that we are seeing. There needs to be wider consultations with
the provinces on this policy issue so that it is in line with what the
government advocate as the bottom up approach.
Mr
Speaker, I believe the points I have raised are not that critical of the
government but they are positive contribution towards the budget.
With these comments, I resume my seat.
(applause)
Hon KAUA: Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me to
contribute on the general debate of the 2007 Appropriation Bill.
Mr Speaker, at the outset may I thank my colleague
Minister of Finance and his hardworking staff for their efforts in preparing
the 2007 Appropriation Bill well on time before the commencement of Parliament. Other officers from the line ministries also
need to be thank for their efforts and invaluable contributions accorded
towards the preparation of the national budget.
Mr Speaker, before I continue with my contribution, may I
mention why is it that the distinguished Leader of Opposition continues to
contemplate on the competency of the courts.
This is contempt of court because already decisions on the cases of the suspended
Attorney General and the Minister of Commerce have already been made.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, more questions were raised on the
issue of arming a segment of the Police Force.
May I ask at this stage what part or page of the Facilitation Act
stipulates that RAMSI provides security for this nation? This is more than the reason why this
particular government is taking the initiative to try and provide that because security
has not been an issue for RAMSI. All
they were mandated to do is to disarm the nation, and that was all.
Mr Speaker, may I now continue with my contribution on
the budget. As one who is closely
participated in the preparation of annual budgets for a considerable number of
years, I am heartened to note that this Budget is the first ever that was
thoroughly discussed and critically analyzed at all levels within the
government realm before formally scrutinized by the Public Accounts
Committee. Hence the report of the PAC
was tabled in Parliament before the second reading of the 2007 Appropriation
Bill by the Minister of Finance.
Mr Speaker, my second observation of this Budget Speech
is that the Development Budget was first introduced before the Recurrent, and
this was something more than extra ordinary than what has been done in the
past.
The
third observation, Mr Speaker is the reduction of projects promised to be
funded by aid donors. In other words,
projects appear with funds already allocated or definite to be funded and not
merely on speculation and presumptuous promises not justifiable, which happens
to be the case with development budgets over the years.
Mr Speaker, no wonder the shadow Minister of Finance
strongly argued why was there less projects funded by aid donors which differs
from past development budgets where nearly or almost the entire development budget
was fully funded by aid funding. That is
a good question.
Mr Speaker, is it not a good thing that an independent
country like Solomon Islands that nearly attain its 30 years of nationhood
still has its budget entirely funded on aid money in spite of its abundant
wealth and richly blessed with natural resources but still its people are
dependant on handouts?
Mr Speaker, I must congratulate successive governments
since this country attained its independence in 1978 for the efforts taken thus
far in the development of our country.
Those were difficult times and their tough decisions made for the good
of our nation deserves our highest commendation.
Mr
Speaker, the policies adopted were for those times in history and the notable
intention of those governments were made to be for their time in
development. We cannot repeat what was
considered best for our country then and continue to maintain the status
quo. Hence we must learn from past
mistakes, experiences and build on for a better future.
Mr Speaker, the Hon. Member for Aoke/Langa Langa
constantly repeated year after year in this honorable house the notion of
colonization and the need to divulge from being dependent to interdependence
growth to address unity in diversity.
How can this be achieved if we continue to depend on aid money and not
empowered with the economic power necessary for development?
Mr Speaker, I am not an economist nor would I pretend to
be one, but commonsense prevails that economic power is a strong tool if you
wish to attain full control of your destiny than anything else in
development. You need to have that power
before you can be heard or make drastic changes to your own life, your people
and your country. Isn’t this what this
current government is vigorously attempting to pursue in order to achieve the ultimate
objectives through its Policies and Programs of Action?
Mr Speaker, as long as economic power is in the hands of
different people, our hands are tied, and we cannot speak openly against those
who have the economic power. You cannot
say, NO to them although in essence
what they say or do is totally contrary to what Solomon Islanders perceive to
be not in the best interest of our people and nation.
Mr Speaker, because we are fearing the threat of
withdrawing assistance, the country continues to suffer because of our
inability to say NO! Why, because we do not have the economics
power, it is in the hands of those who continue to threaten the country of all
sorts of excuses that are not in the best interest of our nation. But we have to support them in fear of
withdrawing of their assistance.
Mr Speaker, one can only learn from past experiences on
how projects were designed year after year in almost every instance that three
quarter of the projects were spent on TAs and huge volumes of reports of feasibility
study one after the other and very little allocated to real development. Why, because economic power is in their hands
and they decide where their money should be spent regardless of what come may.
Mr Speaker, one can only look at shelves in the
Ministries/Departments to witness the huge volumes of reports been filed up
attracting dust and vulnerable to cockroaches and rat nests. That is a clear indication of millions of
dollars having to be spent, not on real development but spent on TAs and volume
of papers but very little spent on actual developments. No wonder there is little impact felt by the recipient
country, in this case the people of
Another
scenario of the same is, Mr Speaker, when a major project is negotiated you can
only ascertain who gets a majority share.
Isn’t that the resource owners or the investor? Nearly in every instance resource owners get
less than the investor. Why? Because he
has the economic power and hence he has the final say on what he should
earn. The beggars have no choice. Isn’t
that what the country is continually facing up to now in our quest to develop
this nation? This is why you can have so
many good promises during the negotiation processes, agreements sealed that the
investor will do this or do that and provide this but at the end of the day, he
cannot leave up with the promises because both partners are not in equal terms
of the economic share of the business that both will respect one another in
their dealings.
Mr Speaker, I am in no way trying to dispute that we
should at any time disregard aid assistance provided by our development
partners. Far from it. All I am trying to illustrate here is that it
is now time that we should have a say on how our aid money is distributed and
implemented for the benefit of the recipient, in this case Solomon Islands, in
order to have a tangible impact on the livelihood of our people and the country
at large, and not necessarily the contrary.
Mr Speaker, this has been the trend over the years and if
this continues we are not far from what the Leader of the
“I am becoming
increasingly concerned by the intent of the manipulative hands that operate
behind the scene in
May I suggest
that we all take a very serious look at what is happening, how it is being
reported and then ask yourselves, who benefits by us, believing them and why
would some try to change the direction of a government that is trying to
protect your interests and increase your quality of life? I believe therein lays the answer. I thank you for your time and look
forward to seeing the Solomon Islands become the economic and prosperous jewel
of the Pacific that we all know it to be.
I urge you, one and all to support the current Prime Minister, Cabinet
and those in Government determined to hold your interest at heart”. end of quote!
Mr Speaker, isn’t it
interesting for someone, who is non-Solomon Islander has already professed to
those who claim to be indigenous Solomon Islanders, blooded by right, bred to
live in this beloved country Solomon Islands opted to stand for others on the
name of politics and forget about the essence and the very existence of its
people his land and the future of his children.
Here,
Mr Speaker, I wish to challenge all the 50 Members of Parliament, the civil
society, the women groups, the Trade Unions and all Solomon Islanders
alike. Where do you stand and whose
interests are you propagating? Have no
fear, if God is in control of our destiny who can be against us. NO
one in his/her right mind would wish to go through those dreadful and ordeal
experiences in the past. Let us leave
what is in the past and draw on what is good to build a better future for our
people, country and future generations, none-other but our children.
Mr
Speaker, what is it? What is in the dark
cannot be brought to light. Is that what all who profess to be Christians
should do? You cannot hold on to the
past and at the same time trying to do things in the light. You cannot be in two environments at the same
time. We should now forget the past and
look to the future.
The
choice is yours for the future. No one
will do it for you. Not even those who
profess to be genuine in their cause of ‘Helpem Fren’. It is you and you alone can make that
choice. It is a tough choice and a one
that requires the collaborative efforts of all of us regardless of creed or
color or ethnicity but based on a common denominator as true Solomon Islanders,
no more no less, if I may quote the expression frequently accorded by none
other than my good friend, the honorable Member for Savo/Russells.
Mr Speaker, may I now turn on to what my Ministry intends
to deliver under the 2007 Budget. Mr
Speaker, the budget tabled before this honorable House is prepared to reflect
the bottom-up approach to agriculture development in the rural areas.
Mr Speaker, our development budget will be implemented
under the partnership policy being put in place by my Ministry. Under this policy, resource owners will be
given the opportunity to actively participate in development programs with the
prime objective of ownership by the resource owners when fully
operational. Mr Speaker, almost all
these undertakings will have the active participation of resource owners from
day one.
The
Solomon Islands Government, through my Ministry will provide the technical
advice and all necessary support services to kick-start the operations. This is people empowering. This is what our people want to see.
Mr
Speaker, the implementation of this Partnership Policy is a major shift in
government policy. It is totally
opposite to previous policies where the government did all developments with NO active involvement by resource
owners. Mr Speaker, a classic example of
past experiences were the Tenavatu Livestock Breeding farm, the Dodo Creek
Research Station; the Black Post Research station, all these were operated by
the government on lease land. The
traditional landowners were mere spectators of development.
Mr
Speaker, another major shift in government policy is the move from Conventional
Agriculture Research to a Participatory Research. Because of the situation on the ground
(destruction of Dodo Creek Research Station) we will now be conducting most of
our research activities as On-Farm research.
Mr
Speaker, this major shift will allow the establishment of farm schools where
farmers will be able to actively participate in all sorts of demonstrations. With this approach, it is anticipated that the
rate of adoption will be quicker and our research staff will respond quickly to
any emerging problems. Again, the
participating resource owners will be trained and expected to take full control
of these activities at a later stage. Mr
Speaker, there will be need for staff mobility. We will provide the necessary support to enable
our field staff to have close contacts and timely visits to our farmers.
Mr Speaker, given the above background to the
implementation of the Partnership Policy, the following national program
shall be implemented under this policy in 2007 and onto 2010.
·
Attention to
National Food Security to keep pace with our growing population.
·
National coffee
development program,
·
Traditional crops
development program for export taro, pineapple,
·
Food processing
and value adding of food crops.
·
National Fruits Tree
crops development program (TSAP)
·
National Cattle
Rehabilitation program that will be on
·
Establishment of
cocoa and coconut seed gardens,
·
Establishing of
copra crushing mills in the provinces.
This will go hand-in-hand with the bio-fuel agenda,
·
Active On-farm
research activities for field crops and livestock enterprises,
·
·
Establishment of certified
slaughter facilities.
·
Active training
programs for staff and farmers,
·
Establishment of registered
Vanilla processing units,
·
Active research
and development (R&D) by research and extension staff in response to farmer
problems.
·
More rice
development for domestic market
·
Encourage active
participation in palm oil development by resource owners, with investors plus
downstream processing of crude oil,
·
Establishment of
pre-export facilities to facilitate crop exports.
Mr Speaker, the key to success implementation of our
national programs in partnership with our resource owners will require our
people to open-up their land for development.
We will not force development on the people. They must show interest and the initiative to
allow development process to happen.
To
facilitate the smooth operation of these national programs in partnership with
the resource owners, all participating parties will sign an MOU. The content of this MOU will vary from each
activity and enterprise.
Mr
Speaker on a major development budget, we intend to address a national wide
cocoa planting program in the next three years.
This is to address the national need for replanting of all aging cocoa
plantations. More than 70% of the
current cocoa plantations now need replanting.
We initially would be starting with four provinces (Malaita,
Mr Speaker, failure to address this problem now will only
lead to a continual downfall in export revenue and therefore a fall in rural
income. Mr Speaker, to do this we need
to establish cocoa nurseries throughout the country. These will be operated by communities with
government support.
Mr Speaker, another pressing issue now is the need to
establish cocoa seed gardens in the provinces.
Today we have only one cocoa seed garden at Black Post. We plan to have 4-6 of such cocoa seed
gardens. Participating communities will
be assisted to run the seed gardens with total ownership after four to five
years of operation.
Mr Speaker, a similar scenario applies to coconut seed
gardens. All our current coconut seed
gardens are senile and need replacement.
This is to allow the country to continue having hybrid nuts available. Mr Speaker, this is a potential production of
bottled coconut water and it is good to have hybrid nuts available for this
business.
Mr Speaker, the cocoa replanting program will take the
form of a subsidy scheme. We all know too well the result of the
subsidy schemes in the early seventies.
Participating farmers will have to work and complete certain tasks
before they can be compensated.
Mr Speaker, my Ministry is currently putting up
monitoring mechanisms to ensure there is smooth implementation of this national
program. It is hoped that a total of up
to 700 hectares will be planted in 2007.
This will build up to 2008-2010 to a total of up to 700 – 10,000
hectares as momentum builds up.
Mr Speaker, we are aware of the good work of some groups
who have taken initiative in the last two years to address cocoa planting. Under this subsidy scheme, we hope to
encourage a lot of our rural youths to do the work. They will be trained from day one. They will
establish nurseries for seedlings, transplanting, look after the trees up to
processing and on to the marketing. At
the end of the day, they will take ownership and contribute positively to
economic recovery.
Mr Speaker, young farmer groups that establish cocoa
nurseries will be able to run the nursery units as a business by selling seeds
to other farmers. To be able to do this,
they will have to use the recommended cocoa varieties. They cannot just plant any variety.
Smallholder
rice development activities in the provinces, semi-commercial rice development
in the provinces and above all two programs have been going for sometimes and
were funded by the Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan) and jointly implemented by
the Department of Agriculture and livestock.
Currently, if I just quote a
report that has been since 1999 we imported 22,788 tons and the money that was
in
Mr
Speaker, if we are going to change that scenario there is going to be a lot of
hard work before these can be achieved.
The overall project objective of this component is to further boost rice
development in the provinces, but with more concentration on commercial type of
operation in selected provinces of Malaita, Western,
Mr
Speaker, discussions are underway with landowners and the
Mr Speaker,
the National Cattle Rehabilitation Program between 700-1000 pregnant heifers
will be imported for breeding purposes.
These will be quarantined initially at the Guadalcanal Plains and later
distributed to eight farm sites, four in
Mr Speaker, a number of key factors are being used to
identify the participating farmers:-
1] Access to
market
2] Access to
slaughter facilities
3] Existence
of good pasture
4] Ease of
rehabilitating the existing farm
5] Farm size
of more than 100 hectares
6] Surrounding
smaller cattle farms to benefit from the pregnancy of further breeding.
Mr
Speaker, this priority will go to build up the national herd numbers. Participating farmers will concentrate on
cattle breeding. A small number of
cattle breeding will be dealt with first to enable our limited staff to
concentrate efforts and a small number will make monitoring easier.
Mr
Speaker, all participating farmers MUST
sign an MOU with the Solomon Islands
Government before they can participate.
This will allow a smooth transition from a joint SIG-Resource Owners
ownership to total farmer ownership.
This may take up to five years.
Mr
Speaker, all participating farmers will receive appropriate training to build
them up to a level of technical competence before a total hand over is made. Mr Speaker, all smallholders with less than
5-10 Ha of land will have to wait to receive calves from those breeding
units. Cattle tethering for fattening
will also come later. Mr Speaker, it is
the intention of my Ministry to import up to 1000 cattle each year for the next
five years.
Mr Speaker, if we can build up our national cattle
breeding herd to 10,000 breeders, we should be able to reduce our beef imports. The current beef import is between 230-270
metric tons per annum. This is costing
us between $15million to $18million per annum.
Mr Speaker, by building up the national breeding herd, we
hope to have our farmers generate income in the rural areas. At the end of the day, this $15million to $18million
should stay in the country.
Mr
Speaker, my Ministry will put in place necessary support services (eg. pPara
veterinary training, training of abattoir workers, training of meat inspectors,
staff and farmers training, disease monitoring) to enable the cattle industry
flourish.
Mr
Speaker, slaughter facilities in the development budget is about $1.5million
and we anticipate to have in place or build three facilities to be put up under
ROC funding in Auki, Temotu and
The rationale almost is all livestock products locally
sold to the public are not going through certified slaughtered units. Mr Speaker, to do this we need to be able to
control some of the pests and diseases that currently affects our taro crops. We will be expanding this control program in
the farmers’ approach as they grow on to taro.
Mr Speaker, there is enough information available in PNG
and
Mr
Speaker, a similar work will put on to look at all-year round production of
pineapples both for domestic and export markets. Mr Speaker, the production to meet export
markets will require dedication and careful farm management and a total change
in mind-setting especially to meet required stands.
Mr Speaker, also under this program we will need to
revisit production of the Irish potato, onions, carrot in the highlands through
the country. These are crops that past
research work have proven to be successful in parts of Malaita, Makira and
Mr
Speaker, we will continue to work with other regional institutions to import
plants for site specific testing and further adoption by our farmers. To facilitate this exercise, we are building
the Post Entry Quarantine facilities at
Mr
Speaker, under the program, assistance will go to expand and the growing of
kava in
Mr
Speaker, vanilla is a new crop. We will
be developing appropriate regulations this year to ensure that we end up with
higher quality products for the export market.
A majority of the current planting are nearing flowering stage. What is now needed is to teach our farmers
the proper processes/techniques so that we end up with high quality vanilla. Mr Speaker, we are very mindful of the
happenings in the vanilla industry in
Mr
Speaker, the current market prices are favorable at US$50 – US$75 per kilo. This is a potential in SI$375 - $560.50 per
kilo. Each plant can produce up to
1.5kilo per year.
Mr Speaker, current figures indicated a total of 200,000
plants being planted over the last three years.
These are nearing flowering in 2007.
This is potential income of SI$7.5million to our farmers. We will continue to encourage more expansion
in this industry
Mr
Speaker, rationale conditions of provincial offices and staff houses urgently
needed attention. This problem has been
a long standing issue which has contributed to deterioration of staff
morale. The current allocation is not
enough to adequately address all staff housing problem. We will start with some houses this year and
hopefully continue next year. We hope to
have this problem addressed under the implementation of the national
Agriculture Development Program (RDP).
Mr
Speaker, the rationale in the agriculture sector now is in need of more trained
agriculturalists. A good number of our
field staff badly needs upgrading. Some
sort of a good number of our field staff are also nearing retiring age.
We
must start building our human resources to be able to move the rural
development activities in the next 4-5 years.
Obviously, we also urgently need training for specialized technical
areas. At the national level, we can
only contribute in the certificate and the diploma level. We urgently need to send more of our young
graduates for specialization postgraduate training. We will be working closely with the Ministry
of Education to ensure that the agricultural sector will have adequate trained
agriculturalist up to the postgraduate level.
Mr
Speaker, the growing of coffee has been in the country for the last 10 years in
Isabel,
Mr Speaker, there is great interest amongst farmers in
the crop. Mr Speaker, under this
program, nurseries will be setup. Training
will be conducted for staff and farmers.
Plantings will be addressed simultaneously to the national
Mr Speaker, existing farmers will also be taught how to
process the coffee beans before selling the beans to the market. Mr Speaker, we are a well aware of hardships
faced by existing growers. For example,
transport difficulties experienced by farmers in Isabel. Given the interest shown in other areas in
the crop, we will encourage more landholding groups to grow coffee.
Mr Speaker, such problems should not deter us from
helping our other farmers who are determined to go into the business. The nature of these problems and how to
address them varies in locations and locations differ. Mr Speaker, all these will be implemented on
the farmers’ plots jointly by MAL staff and the participating farmers.
Mr
Speaker, participatory research under the Partnership Policy is going to be a
major shift in our research work. In the
past most research work were conducted on government experimental
stations. This major shift will see MAL
staff conduct demonstration with farmers.
Neighboring farmers will be encouraged to visit these demonstration
sites. It is hoped that the rate of
adoption will be increase as farmers actively participate.
Mr Speaker, at the completion of each demonstration, the
participating farmers will be able to continue with the crop and further expand
to crop production for market. Mr
Speaker, we will be working very closely with the SICHE to ensure that the
syllabus being taught at the Certificate and Diploma level prepares our
agriculturalist students to get prepared for these changes. Times are changing and so we must prepare our
graduates to tackle the challenges out in the field now.
Mr
Speaker, it is the priority of this government to revive the Land Use Planning
(LUP) Unit in MAL. The unit was active
in past years during the Land Purchasing Co-operative days. The idea then was that landholding groups
were assisted in how to manage plantations as they repossess plantations from
colonial ownership.
Mr
Speaker, with the level and the degree of farming and other man-made activities
now taking place on land in this country,
Mr Speaker, we have seen the negative impact gardening
and unsustainable logging practices had on our land and marine resources. As our population continues to grow, so will its
impact on our land and marine resources.
This impact is very serious in many parts of the country today. The expanding population is now leading to
increased pressure on land and marine resources.
Mr Speaker, the problem of land degradation is evident
throughout the country. Soil fertility
problems are seen in many parts of the country.
This is leading to declining crop yields. Mr Speaker, if we do not start address these
national problems now, our Food Security
will be rocked in years to come, if not now.
We will end up relying on imported processed food items.
We will lead our associated
health problems and therefore add costs to our national health bills. It is the intention of this government to
start addressing these problems now.
Mr Speaker, we will be recruiting graduates this year to
revive the LUP Unit in MAL. This will
work closely with the staff of other ministries to develop appropriate farming
practices for use by our farmers.
Mr Speaker, at the internal level,
Mr
Speaker, we will also be re-vitalizing the Agriculture Information Unit (AIU)
in MAL in 2007. Our office has been
frequented on a daily basis by students, farmers and other stakeholders looking
for information. We are well aware of
the role information played in the development process. To do this, we are recruiting two officers in
2007 to get the job off on the ground.
Mr
Speaker, we will be utilizing the current network, by PF Net to disseminate
information to our clients out in the provinces. We will also be utilizing the local media
(SIBC), which our distinguish Leader of Opposition amplified as an important
role for media and information gathering.
We will also provide up-date market information to our farmers. Mr Speaker, it is the intention of this government
to encourage value added by assisting farmers to go into downstream processing
activities.
Mr Speaker, a food processing laboratory is currently being
built in
Mr
Speaker, the other area to assist will be the copra crushing mills especially
in the provinces. This is an area we
were successful in doing before the ethnic tension.
Mr Speaker today, there is a national need to reduce food
costs in poultry, pig feeding. Copra
meal is currently being produced in
Mr Speaker, the other national issue is the every
increasing price in fossil fuel. We
cannot just sit down and watch and complain on the problem of rising fuel
prices.
Mr
Speaker, for agriculture to develop from a subsistence sector to a more
commercial sector, we will have to have sustainable cheaper fuel resources
available to our farmers for rural electrification and rural transport. (I hope the shadow Minister of Finance will
help in this particular area). Mr
Speaker, I know this will take time to implement. We will take a case by case situation to
assist in this area.
Mr Speaker there is already a number of copra crushing
mills operating in the provinces. What
we need to do is build up their capacity to produce more copra meal and coconut
oil. Mr Speaker, these operators are
currently buying copra from farmers at attractive prices. In so doing, the farmers do not have to face
transport problem to
Mr
Speaker in the long run, we must be proactive in addressing our fuel problems
now. All other developed countries are
well into developing bio-fuel. Encouragement
of the use of bio-fuel now will lead to conservation of foreign reserves, and
more income circulation in the rural areas.
Sir,
a draft bill is ready and is currently being reviewed in the light of the incursion
of the Giant African Snail. It will be
tabled in Parliament once this is finalized.
Contingency
plans, especially for the Avian Influenza incursion into
Mr
Speaker, based on the work now carried out to eradicate the Giant African Snail
from this country, we realize the need to involve a number of ministries and
stakeholders. All these will be
incorporated in the new Bio Security Bill.
Mr Speaker, this will involve the following ministries: Infrastructure, Development,
Forestry, Police, the media, education, and the private sector.
Mr
Speaker, to implement such contingency plans, we also need to establish a sound
monitoring and surveillance mechanism in the country. Mr Speaker at the moment, my Ministry does
not have the capacity (the manpower and training) to carry out such a national
task adequately. We will start
addressing these caps this year and budget for it in the recurrent budget. Mr Speaker, the issue of pest and disease
surveillance and monitoring in our scattered islands will be difficult.
Mr Speaker, the National Oil Palm Development
Projects. The oil palm industry has been
proven to be an export earner for the country in the past. It is significant that my Ministry is aggressively
pursuing palm oil development throughout the country. We have seen the successful reactivation of
the former SIPL with GPPOL and the company has started producing oil for export
and foreign earnings for the country.
Mr Speaker, the Vangunu Oil Palm Project, as you all know
has been dormant for some time. However,
my Ministry is placing a high priority on the project and program of actions
are now put together by the Ministry to resolve outstanding issues and promote
the project through partnership with the developer and the landowners of
Vangunu. It is our hope with the budget
allocation of $1million this year the project will pick up from where it was
for some years now.
Mr Speaker, a good example of this partnership and bottom
up approach is the Auluta and the East Fataleka Oil Palm Project. The project model consists of three
integrated systems of oil palm production.
These are the Nucleus Oil Palm Estates, Small Scale Oil Palm Plantations
and Village Oil Palm Out-Growers Schemes.
The Nucleus Oil Palm Estate will be an investor driven system while
Small Scale Oil Palm and Village Out-Growers Systems are reduced for families,
communities and individuals.
These integrated systems will promote partnership among
investors, government and resource owners, and more importantly it will provide
an opportunity for the participation of resource owners, villagers and
communities in oil palm development. It
is my Ministry’s hope that this model will be relevant and can be replicated
throughout the oil palm project sites throughout the country.
Mr Speaker, my Ministry has just formally endorsed two
new oil palm development sites for this year.
These are Waisisi Oil Palm Development and Choiseul Oil Palm
Development. Although feasibility
studies are yet to be carried out on these sites, the government is serious on
oil palm development throughout the country and has committed funds under the
budget for these two new oil palm development sites.
Mr Speaker, in essence, my Ministry is committed in developing
oil palms throughout the country.
However, as alluded to earlier, success will only be achieved, if oil
palm development is approached by means of partnership with investors, resource
owners, provincial governments and the National Government through my
Ministry. This in turn ensures that
resource owners would ultimately have a sense of ownership and are empowered to
participate in the development of oil palm throughout the country. In the long run
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, this budget when implemented
will greatly lead to active participation of our rural population. They will, at the end of the day become
owners instead of mere spectators of the development process. This resembles the bottom up approach being
advocated by this government.
Mr Speaker, my Ministry is prepared to deliver services
to enable sound development activities take place at the rural areas for our
people. Mr Speaker, as such, we are
proud to make agriculture become attractive to our rural youth and therefore
contribute to our economic recovery plans.
The economic base will be broadened instead of being narrowed to cocoa
and copra.
With those remarks, Mr Speaker, I wish to thank you most
sincerely for allowing me to speak on this very important Bill. With those, I support the Bill.
Mr TOZAKA: Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me to join
honorable colleagues to contribute to the debate on the Appropriation Bill 2007
moved by the Honorable Minister of Finance and Treasury, and Member of
Parliament for Gizo/Kolombangara. Accordingly,
I would like to thank the Honorable Minister for introducing this very
important bill and his first appropriation bill to be introduced, which is supposed
to have been dispensed off timely at the end of our financial year last year
but was not ready.
Mr Speaker, in saying this I am not trying to get at the
Minister and his Department knowing very well the magnitude of work required to
put together this important budget. I
feel it is worth mentioning, however, because time is not always on our side
and we have lost considerable amount of time since the government came into
power 10 months ago, and disappointingly instead of us going ahead with the
job, we are still at the stage of passing the national budget. This, I feel, reflects quite badly on the
performance as far as seriousness and commitment in implementing government
policies and programs.
Mr Speaker, having said this, I would like to make a few
observations on the budget. Firstly, I
feel that the budget lacks proper thorough prior consultation with relevant
authorities, not only donor partners, but institutions dealing with matters in
the budget such as banking institutions, private sector and provincial
government. I believe as other honorable
colleagues have mentioned that Members of Parliament have not been consulted on
matters affecting them in the budget. A
good example, of course is one we raised this morning during question time.
Mr Speaker, secondly while the speech cautions us not to be
complacent, which I appreciate the Honorable Minister stated that, I feel it is
not strong enough from the money boss so to speak, to emphasize more on
management and controlling of spending, given our high vulnerable situation
that could tip us back if we are not careful to learn from the past.
I notice the government has a lot of new vehicles brought
in to meets its transport needs. May be
in this area an urgent policy is required to address transport requirements to
control expenditure on buying of new vehicles every time a new government comes
into power.
Mr
Speaker, thirdly, the message from the budget is a very straightforward
message. It is a message of
centralization of government, the big government and provinces to remain an
agent of the government.
While
I do not dispute this in principle because we need to have a very strong
central government system, the approach is confusing because on one hand we are
talking about the bottom up approach and on the other hand we are still
maintaining the status quo. Surely, we
can do both styles of approach at the same time, but the luxury of funds is not
on our side, therefore, one style has to give way and therefore, a clear policy
direction is required from the responsible Department for Provincial Government
in this particular case.
Mr
Speaker, as other honorable Members have alluded, whilst on the topic of the bottom
up approach, I would like to remind us that this management development
approach is not a new thing in our system of government. The current provincial government system is
in fact a bottom up approach in itself where government functions and services
are decentralized to provincial and area councils.
Sir,
the objective of the government when introducing this idea back in 1981 was to
achieve the same thing the GCC Government is trying to achieve. I do not need to tell you if the system has
been successful or not, but in general it has failed to deliver the goods and
services to the people. This is a very
common sight to us in shipping services, for example, the failure of this
concept and the total termination or removal of the area councils at the
village level.
Mr
Speaker, I understand the difficulties the Coalition Government is going
through. It is not a very easy task to
meet all the interests or the policies of the parties involved. So to be Mr Speaker, in general, this budget is
a two step forward and one step back approach.
Mr
Speaker, I am representing here my constituency of
Mr
Speaker, I am aware that the budget has touched on these things for attention. To let you know, Mr Speaker, the only service
that is going down to the provinces since I became a Member of Parliament is
education. I would like to congratulate
the Minister for Education for that.
Apart from that Mr Speaker, I have not come across any services that go
down to serve people at the grassroots or at the village level at this point in
time.
There
are difficulties Mr Speaker, it is common knowledge and that is lack of
finance, lack of manpower, lack of infrastructure.
Mr
Speaker, because of the ineffectiveness and unproductiveness of the government
system at the provincial level, these services are being provided invariably by
the private sector. It is the private
sector, both our local and expatriate business people that are currently providing
these services to our people.
In
my constituency, it is the business people that are shipping goods and services
to the people, providing materials for building houses, water supply and so
on. These are supposed to be services
provided by the government functions, but they have failed to do so for obvious
reasons I have already mentioned.
Sir,
my opinion here is that private sector driven economy should be emphasized in
this bottom up approach of the government of the day. What if the bottom up approach is given to
the private sector to lead instead of the bureaucracy? The private sector has the correct
organizational structure, management culture, discipline and commitment to the
job, so the government should identify in each of the constituencies successful
business people who are providing these services and give them the opportunity
to carry out the services on behalf of the government through proper
arrangements with them, similar arrangements that we enter into with the
provincial governments in terms of agency agreement. If the Government does this approach then I
have all the good reasons to go back to
Mr
Speaker, to further my point on private sector, it is that particular sector
that establishes township of urban centres such as Gizo, Auki, Tulagi and even
Hon Darcy: Point of Order. Mr Speaker, I notice that we are right on
Mr
Speaker, with your consent I beg to move that Standing Order 10 be suspended in
accordance with Standing Order 81 to permit the continuation of the business of
the House until adjourn by you under Standing Order 10(5).
Mr Tozaka: Thank you Mr Speaker, for allowing me to
continue my debate on the motion.
Therefore, Mr Speaker, I call upon the government to
reconsider granting the responsibility of driving the bottom up policy by the
private sector, instead of what has been suggested as being the policy of the
government with bureaucracy as the status quo.
Mr Speaker, while we are creating infrastructural
projects, we seem to be forgetting a very important government obligation,
because perhaps we consider it as a very low level responsibility. This is concerning maintenance and repairs of
existing government infrastructures. This is not only in urban centres but it is
very visible in rural areas. For
example, airstrip terminals, wharves, hospitals buildings, office buildings and
so on, are in very hopeless state of repair and reflects very badly on any
government policies for failing to attend to them. I note in the budget there is some provision
for these liabilities but as usual very inadequate.
Sir,
I raise this point because tourists and investors comment very negatively on
the image of our country from the pathetic situation of these infrastructures. Mr Speaker, this is a very important job that
the PWD during the colonial days used to routinely do at very minimal
cost. The responsible Department may
wish to consider reestablishing the PWD system in certain areas to be directly
responsible for the effective and efficient maintenance of government
properties and equipments.
Mr
Speaker, for nation rebuilding to be successful, people need to trust the
government and those at its helm. People
are aware that the reason RASMSI is here is because we totally mismanage our
economy, and we did not govern ourselves properly, so we asked for this
assistance to come and help us. So we
undoubtedly are currently at the mercy of charity funding support from donors
through this mission, and their personnel supporting staff in their capacity
and strengthening units in various ministries and departments. There is nothing to be ashamed about this
fact and accordingly we need to acknowledge the excellent work of these various
reform programs including that of our National Parliament.
Mr
Speaker, the enormous assistance that
Mr
Speaker, I know that the Ministry here is attending to this matter. But I would like to urge the Ministry to get
on to rebuild a close and constructive relationship once again with
Other
speakers have said that it was public knowledge that the presentation of
credentials by the Head of Mission of Australia in
Mr
Speaker, I urge the government to get on with the business to conclude this, to
make this happen, to make this relationship come back to normalcy.
I am
pleased to note that the review of the good work of th e Regional Assistance
Mission to
A
little bit more I would like to say in the relationship between the
The
people’s question here is, what is this childish attitude? What is this childish way of approaching this
partnership? It is like two children
scratching each others back. One child
scratching my back and another one scratches his back too. This is the attitude. You do not give me a lollie so I will not
accept you to come into my house. That
is the sort of attitude displayed. This
is a very childish attitude. A country
that is reconstructing and is rebuilding after the ethnic tension cannot have
that attitude.
Our
people are urging the Government and RAMSI to come together and quickly address
the issues that they have differences over.
For RAMSI, my constituency is saying that you listen to the Solomon
Islands Government and what the Solomon Islands Government wants, you take it
on, you discuss, you accept it, and you come to an agreement collectively. For the Solomon Islands Government, you
listen to RAMSI. The different views
that you have in relation to government policies, you discuss them. We need to come down to basics on our
relationship with this
Mr
Speaker, having said this I will urge the government if it could mean business
in this relationship with this mission that has come to our land, and to also
take its mission very seriously with its relationship with the government.
Going
back to the budget, Mr Speaker, I agree with him in his speech, stated that our
national priorities must not be lost through overdoing things in government
machineries. That is very correct. For example, in our economic development, my
interpretation of priority is that there are three main sectors that I consider
to be very important sectors in our economy, and these sectors are agriculture,
fisheries and tourism. These are the
three sectors that I see
The Minister responsible for
Agriculture has spoken about agriculture which I appreciate most of the things
he said in terms of development programs in carrying out government policies. Therefore, this budget in my view should give
more attention to the requests of these three ministries. But I am aware that what has been recommended
by these three Ministries have not been allocated to them in total.
In provincial fisheries, for example, the Minister has
covered in his statement the provincial fisheries centres. In the report here I gathered that the
Permanent Secretary said that all fisheries centres are functioning in the
provinces. These fisheries centres were
established way back in 1981, and I would like to confirm in this honorable
house that for
These are the things I am referring to, Mr Speaker, when
I talk about provinces. Our people in
the community want to feel the government going down to them. When I mention this Mr Speaker, I am sure you
are not aware of these things because no one has gone down to them. When you talk about
Sir, invariably the places that I am talking about, our
natural resources are invariable. You
will be very surprised if you come down to
Mr Speaker, without prejudice, but it is quite hypocrisy
and inconsistent to government policy that while we emphasize this bottom up
approach, the respective ministries and departments responsible to drive this
policy to the rural areas are not being properly equipped with manpower,
finance and infrastructure.
Mr Speaker, this brings me to the point once again to
directly question without any prejudice, as I said, the justification of
establishing a unit in the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet with 17 political
appointees attracting personnel emoluments of about $2.6 million.
Mr Speaker, this is completely outrageous and a waste of
public funds which should otherwise have been used wisely in line ministries
and departments. How do these appointments
justify themselves in the face of Ministries and Departments who are starving
of manpower and financial support such as health, education, agriculture - the
key Ministries including those in my opinion - agriculture, fisheries and
tourism.
No wonder, Mr Speaker, it is very hard for us to
implement government policies because priorities have gone wrong. Some of us are talking by experience. We have gone through these, and the things keep
on repeating.
Mr Speaker, do not take me wrong that I am against
political appointees, and employment for Solomon Islanders. No. What
I am against is extravagant or excessive use of funds; funds that we do not
have in our banks. That is what I am
very concerned about in this particular issue.
Mr Speaker, on the development budget, I see a very big
failure too. A very big failure in that
most development projects have been carried forward to this year because there
are failures of implementation, failure of monitoring these projects making
sure these projects are properly implemented.
Mr Speaker, I am happy that the Minister of Public
Service is doing something to look at the Public Service system in making sure
it is efficient and productive in terms of training in areas like this. This is because at the end of the financial
year Mr Speaker, we expect all the money attached to these projects to be expended.
They should be spent on where they are
supposed to be spent. Not $50,000 or
$500,000 still in the budget. In some
Ministries some of the funds have not been utilized, have not been used
up. They are supposed to be used up
totally on where they are supposed to be going in the villages. This is not happening.
Mr Speaker, I expect that at the end of the financial
year all projects should be fully implemented.
The funds are not ours. They are
monies supposed to be spent on projects they have been accounted for. This is total lack of coordination,
communication, appraisal and those sorts of things on our projects. I think we should strengthen the arms of the
government to address this weakness.
Mr Speaker, on the question of ownership of this budget,
as far as my constituency of
To further illustrate my point, if one travels to my
constituency from one end to the other, one will find out the national flags of
other countries that own those projects Mr Speaker. For example, a clinic funded by Australia, a water
supply funded by New Zealand perhaps, and the rest of the projects funded by
RCDF funding from the Republic of China.
These are the countries that get support and appreciation from the
people. These are the countries that
they are very happy about. They
appreciate them.
When
you ask the people about any projects from the SIG or Provincial Government for
that matter, the obvious response you will receive is ‘mi no save.’ They have not seen any projects from the
SIG. They have no feeling or sense of
pride in their own government simply because they have seen nothing directly
from the SIG or Provincial Government for that matter.
Mr Speaker, I would like to recommend that with this bottom
up approach, if the government could take this point onboard to consider changing
the budget framework to include direct allocation of funds to
constituencies. The activities should be
central government – constituency on certain services the government considers
they should be getting.
For example Mr Speaker, the Honorable Minister mentioned
rehabilitation on cocoa and copra for $3million. This money has been earmarked to go down to
the provinces. Why not pay this money directly
to the constituencies through an arrangement, not directly like the RCDF. But there should be some kind of arrangements
where the money goes down to our constituencies. This will make the constituencies feel they
own the projects, they own the budget, they will be looking forward when we
come to debate the national budget because they will have some interests in it. At the moment sir, they don’t. I looked through the development budget and
there is nothing for
This leaves me to say that the only funding source that
keeps the people in my constituency still ticking are from aid donors, which I
would like to thank them very much on behalf of my people of North Vella for their
kind assistance to the funding that we receive.
Mr Speaker, the Rural Development Fund through the
goodwill assistance from our friend, the Government of Republic of China assists
our community tremendously, and for that I would like to thank ROC.
Mr Speaker, I would like to conclude by appreciating the
action of the government. Like other honorable
colleagues have mentioned, the separate budget of the Head of Judiciary and
other departments as well as allocation to the National Parliament at large to
attend to the long outstanding need of repairing or refurbishment of Members
accommodation.
Mr Speaker, progress in the economy in 2007 lies squarely
on continued improvement in the law and order situation, stable public
finances, and structural reforms to promote governance and sustainable private
sector led economic growth. This, I see
Mr Speaker, as a benchmark upon which we should be developing the 2007budget.
Mr Speaker, having said these let us not forget, and I
would like to remind us again that when our country came down and asked for
assistance, it was found by reports that our country was suffering from a
classic vicious circle of various elements that forced us to do so. And these are weak institutions, corrupt
governments, poor law and order, insufficient revenue, dislocated and alienated
youth, a growing culture of violence, international neglect. Each of these elements reinforces the others
to create traps to trap us from which there appears to be no escape on the
development of forward movement of the country.
Mr Speaker, we are most grateful that this vicious circle
had been broken through outside goodwill help, through deep reforms, big
changes giving confidence and hope back to our people. My people of North Vella headed by the chiefs
and elders would like me to convey to this honorable House for the attention of
responsible Ministries that they do not want to go back to the same vicious
circle of events in the past, and that this budget should be responsible in
making sure that does not happen, and that we continue to work together
cooperatively to rebuild our country, Solomon Islands.
With these remarks, I resume my seat.
Hon SIKUA: Thank you, Mr Speaker sir, for giving this
opportunity to make a contribution on this very important bill. My contribution to the bill will mainly focus
on the Ministry of Education on its 2007 Recurrent and Development Estimates
and Programs.
Mr Speaker, education and the development of human
resources plays a crucial role in the government’s pursuit of creating a
society that is equitable, trustworthy and forward-looking, as mentioned by the
Honorable Minister for Finance and Treasury when tabling this Bill on
Mr Speaker, in the government’s objective of achieving
development through the bottom-up and regionally-focused approach, my Ministry
has been consulting with officials of all Provincial Governments and Church
Education Authorities as well as many school management teams, boards and
committees in the development of their respective triennium Provincial
Education Action Plans for 2007 –
2009. These Provincial Education Action
Plans culminated in the formation of the National Education Action Plan 2007 –
2009 through a national workshop initiated by my Ministry under the auspices of
NZAID in November last year.
That said, I now wish to speak on several government
policies with regard to the Education Budget for 2007. As was the case with previous governments, I
am pleased with the fact that the GCC Government has allocated the largest
slice of the Recurrent Budget to education for this year. Mr Speaker, this currently stands at more
than $227 million or 26.1% of the total Recurrent Expenditure excluding budget
support or more than $267 million which is 28.7% of the total Recurrent
Expenditure if the NZAID Budget Support of $40 million is included.
Mr Speaker, this large allocation to the Education
Section is justified because our Mission Statement clearly spells out the need
for the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development to promote,
develop and facilitate education and training needs of the country within the
framework of the Government’s policies and priorities, as reflected in the
National Education Action Plan 2007 – 2009, as well as the Education Strategic
Framework from this year up to 2015. In
doing so, the expected key activities in 2007 will focus on:
·
The provision of
effective planning, monitoring, coordination and management support with the
assistance of the EU and NZAID under our Education Sector Investment and Reform
Program (ESIRP) to deliver education services in
·
Aim to improve on
the provision of tertiary education and training services by the
·
The provision of
primary and secondary education, technical and vocational education and
training.
·
Aim to work very
hard on our early childhood education programs, primary and secondary and
non-formal education delivered by the Ministry with communities, education
authorities and schools.
·
Develop and
improve on the provision of curriculum materials and textbooks and examination
setting and maintenance of standards, teacher training; and as well as the
establishment of the USP Campus in
Mr
Speaker, in fulfilling the primary objectives of development through the
bottom-up and regional approach, the government via the European Union is
providing resources to equip provincial education offices at the provincial
headquarters in enabling them to deliver effective educational services to
rural communities. This assistance is
reflected in the Development Estimates and is estimated at $14.3million. Additionally, the government will renovate
education offices in the provinces or build new offices for better working
environment and to improve the productivity level of our seconded officers in
the provinces, which is part and parcel of the Global Program Estimate
estimated at $36.2 million. In this
regard, we have already embarked on providing aluminum boats and outboard
motors to all education offices in the provinces.
Mr
Speaker, in regards to primary school grants that the Leader of the Opposition
is so concerned about; the government has increased the allocation from
$13.3million in 2006 to approximately $20million in 2007. This is supplemented with $6million from
NZAID budget supplementation for primary school grants. Mr Speaker, these gives a total of $26million
for primary school grants in the 2007 budget.
Mr
Speaker, these grants have been calculated on $220 per child allocation for all
primary schools throughout the country.
Hence this allocation of $220 per child should enable all children of
primary school age in
Mr
Speaker, the Government is investing $14.1million in terms of secondary school
grants for 2007. This sum will be
complimented by $7.7million from the European Union under the auspices of
Stabex ’99 as reflected in the 2007 Development Estimates. Therefore, the gross secondary grants amounts
to $21.8million, an increase from $15.9 million in last year’s budget.
Mr
Speaker, calculation for secondary school grants are based on $500 per student
in day secondary schools and $750 per student in boarding secondary schools.
Mr
Speaker, in continuing with this initiative, two points must be clearly
highlighted. The first is for us to
realize that the allocation of about $47.8million by the government in its 2007
Recurrent Budget for the Ministry in terms of grants to primary and secondary
schools is not a “one-shot affair” but has to be an ongoing commitment by any
government now and in the future.
Mr
Speaker, the other point concerns the ongoing need to encourage community
participation and partnership in education.
This is the pillar upon which our education system is developed, and has
to be promoted by the Ministry of Education and education authorities with
communities through ongoing public awareness campaigns.
Mr
Speaker, I am aware of the arbitrary and very high level of school fees that
have been charged by some education authorities in their secondary
schools. In view of this, my Ministry
through the National Education Board will be submitting recommendations to
Cabinet soon for the introduction of uniform levels of school fees to be
charged by all education authorities at lower and upper secondary school
levels.
Furthermore,
Mr Speaker, given that about $22million are collected by schools as school fees
each year, the Ministry will heed the call by the Public Accounts Committee and
liaise with the Ministry of Finance and Treasury to see how these funds can be
reflected in the budget as income because these are resources available to
education. To date, school fees are not
reflected in the budget which lends this very substantial amount of money to
abuse.
Mr
Speaker, I wish to highlight that a new and laudable feature of the 2007
Education Budget is the clear delineation of the budget’s provincial
spread. Hence, you will find separate
accounting codes for all provincial education authorities making it easy for
one to see how much we are investing in any given province in any given
year. I therefore hope that once school
fees can be factored into the recurrent budget, these can be reflected as
income in the separate provincial allocations.
Mr
Speaker, the Government is committed to the extension of basic education of nine
years up to Form 3 by year 2015. My Ministry
has already embarked on strategies to enable the government to implement this
bold policy. Hence, in 2005, the Solomon
Islands Secondary School Entrance Examinations, commonly known as the Standard
6 Exams is being used only as a basis for placement of students in secondary schools
and is no longer used as a selection mechanism.
Mr
Speaker, in 2006, 2007, the overall access or transition rate from Standard 6
into Form 1 in Secondary Schools was 95%, but this varies from province to
province. Some provinces have already
achieved a 100% access into Form 1 for their children while other provinces
still lag behind, partly because of their large population sizes. In view of this, I am very pleased to inform
this honorable House that for the last two years, no standard 6 pupil has
dropped out or has been pushed out at the end of class 6. All standard 6 pupils have either been placed
in Form 1 at any of our 140+ secondary schools or are being asked to repeat
class 6.
Mr
Speaker, in order to achieve nine ((9) years of basic education up to Form 3 by
the year 2015, there must be proper planning so that there is quality control
and assurance in the expansion process.
Therefore, there is need to identify the number of additional Form 1
classes required in each constituency or provinces within the period
2007-2015. This will assist all
Parliamentarians, Provincial Governments, Church Education Authorities and the National
Government in the planning process, expansion and development of lower
secondary education in each of the constituencies, provinces and the country as
a whole. In view of the sparse
population distribution in some provinces or wards, this expansion would also
necessitate the construction of new boarding facilities.
Mr
Speaker, the location of these new Community High Schools have already been
determined in the various Provincial Education Action Plans that are already
being developed. This is to rationalize the
location of Community High Schools so that there is equitable distribution of
these schools in the wards, constituencies and provinces.
Mr
Speaker, you can see that the Government is committed to giving every boy and
girl in
Mr
Speaker, I am cognizant of the wish of many people to have all our children
attend secondary schooling up to Form 5.
Given the current transition rate from Form 3 to Form 4 is about 70%, I
am confident that this can be achieved soon provided that additional resources
are being made available for renovation and expansion of our secondary schools
in line with our Technical Vocational Education and Training Policy.
Mr
Speaker, the Grand Coalition for Change Government has continued to assist
Rural Training Centres in the 2007 Budget through the payment of salaries of
instructors at $53.4million and grants at $8.8million totaling $62.2million for
Rural Training Centres.
The
overall objective, Mr Speaker, is to contribute to the development of
Mr
Speaker, there is a need to continue the development and improvement in
vocational technical education and training to support the government’s bottom
up approach. The government must
intervene as it is important that young people and adults are provided with the
skills needed to have an acceptable livelihood by living productive lives and
avoid urban drift and social disruption.
Mr
Speaker, at the other end of the spectrum, I wish to highlight that more than
$6 2.1million has been factored into the Ministry’s 2007 Recurrent Estimates
for Tertiary Support, and more than $52million in the Development Budget. The justifications for these are quite
obvious as, out of more than 1000 students studying overseas, we will be having
about 940 students sponsored by the SIG this year. This includes about 350 new SIG awards for
2007.
Mr
Speaker, of the $62.1million for the 2007 tertiary support budget, a total of
$10.8million is being provided by NZAID to go towards teacher training at the
SICHE School of Education.
Mr
Speaker, in terms of tertiary support funds for the Development Estimates, I
would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Governments of the Republic
of China,
Mr
Speaker, the Government of Papua New Guinea has kindly provided $12.5million
for in-PNG training awards 2007. A cash
estimate of more than $15million has been kindly contributed by the Government
of Australia for in-Australia training and NZAID will provide $6.2million for short
and long term training awards in
Mr
Speaker, the tertiary support allocation includes an increase grants to SICHE
of $12.6million for 2007 as opposed to $11.2 million in 2006.
Mr
Speaker, the Grand Coalition for Change Government is very serious and
committed to pursue the establishment of the USP Campus in
Mr
Speaker, the Solomon Islands Government and the University of the South Pacific
have been planning the establishment of a new campus of the USP in the
Mr Speaker, agreement has
been reached in principle for the use of an 11 hectares site on the lower part
of the Panatina Campus of the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education
Campus of the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education. The Solomon Islands Government will be
responsible for funding the new infrastructure and the USP for equipping,
operating and staffing the new premises.
Mr Speaker,
the SIG and the USP have a draft protocol agreement ready which determines the
nature of our relationship with regard to establishing a new campus. Investment such as staffing and ICT equipment
in the new campus will also include the establishment of nine provincially
based study centres linked by VSAT technology to the main campus which will
allow much improved access to USP courses by remotely located students.
Mr
Speaker, establishing a new USP campus in
·
Improved local
access to higher education opportunities
·
Wider range of
USP courses available to
·
Better study
facilities
·
Reduced costs of
regional scholarships
·
It will act as an
economic driver to the local economy, and
·
The USP Campus
will work in complimentarily with the Solomon Islands College of Higher
Education.
Mr
Speaker, a comprehensive study was undertaken jointly by the SICHE/USP team in
2004 which, amongst other things, show that the demand for higher education in
Mr Speaker, I wish to assure this honorable House that we
do not intend to build a traditional “Bricks and Mortar” Campus but rather an
E-learning university campus such as the one advocated by the MP for East Are
Are.
Establishing
a new university campus in
Mr Speaker, if the new USP campus is to truly serve the
higher education needs of all Solomon Islanders then the new campus has to be
able to offer learning opportunities to students at provincial level study
centres as well. This will mean
delivering teaching and learning opportunities to provincially-based students
using modern information and communications technology as is currently done at
the USP centre here in
Mr Speaker, investing in this technology will be vital if
access to higher education level courses is to be made available to all Solomon
Islanders. The Ministry’s pilot Distance
Learning Centre Project (DLCP) is establishing nine provincial centres all connected
to the Internet through our solar powered satellite communications. This low cost model has the potential to
provide study centres to even the most remotely located students, allowing the
proposed new USP campus to serve a dispersed student population and thereby
providing lower cost access for them. Mr
Speaker, construction on the USP campus in
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, the Government is very serious
about its vision for education and training in
Mr Speaker, with these comments, I support the Bill.
Mr GUKUNA: Mr Speaker, I stand to also make some
comments on this Bill that is before this Honorable House, a very important
one. Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving
me this opportunity to be able to do so.
First, Mr Speaker, allow me to express my thanks, on
behalf of the people I represent in this House, the individuals who worked so
hard in putting this budget together. The
Administration Officers of our Ministries, the Permanent Secretaries and the
Technical Advisors must be thank for putting their time and efforts toward this
budget. Of course, Mr Speaker, I must
thank the Minister of Finance and Treasury, the Honorable Member for Gizo/Kolombangara
for delivering to this House the 2007 Budget
.
I am indeed impressed by the clarity of purpose in this
Budget Document. I am also very
impressed on the principle on which this Budget is founded. Like other past budgets we have been waited
for this one. All of us have been
waiting for it. Our Ministries are
waiting for it. This Parliament has been
calling for it, the entire public machinery of this country has been waiting
for it, and potential investors are keen to see, we all have been waiting for
it.
Perhaps Mr Speaker the waiting that matters this year
2007 is that of the 85% of our rural people in
Our rural people have been promised that the 2007 Budget
will recognize them as true resource owners of this nation, this budget is
tailor-made especially for them, that this budget will get them out of them poor
life onto the basics of life.
Mr Speaker, containing in this Budget is the Government’s
attempt to deliver on its promises to our rural people, the center-piece of
which is the Bottom-Up Approach to development that will allow our rural people
to be directly responsible for creating their own futures, futures that they
will truly own.
They will, from this year, Mr Speaker, not have to wait
for these benefits to be created here in
It matters not to me, Mr Speaker, whether we are buying
rural political support or not, it matters not whether we are diverting their
attention so that we can continue with our dubious motives, what matters to me
here is that at the end of this week we will pass on to our rural people a
development concept that is going to cost this country dearly. Costly, it may be, this, it appears is our
best way in delivering promises we made to our rural people, for they had been
waiting for it, expect nothing less.
Mr Speaker, we must not underestimate the intensity of
this rural expectation, it is huge and we, especially the Government cannot
afford to fail.
Mr Speaker, at the heart of this Bottom-Up Approach is
the belief that by giving development money to our rural people, they will
become well-off. If they fail to improve
their standard of living, they have themselves only to blame.
As you know, Mr Speaker, when we share money, there is
never going to be enough of it to go around, so we will next have to deal with
the excuses that the money they receive this year is peanuts, hardly enough to
get any development project done.
Mr Speaker, may I remind you that this is not the first
time we give money to the rural areas.
We have been doing this for many years.
We have given millions of dollars, we have spent billions and billions
of dollars in rural projects after projects, only to see these well-appraised
projects failed and failed to generate economic benefits they meant to produce.
Mr
Speaker, we are here to give them some more money, this time implement a
development concept that is untested and will only be immediately compounded by
the apparent lack of capacities and support materials in the rural areas.
Mr Speaker, there are a lot of figures in this Budget,
but the figures that our rural people would want to see and hear appear as
“consolidated funds” in the Development Part of this budget, the amount is
$188million. This is the amount of money
that our rural people in our constituencies and provinces will get to implement
this much talked-about Bottom up Approach of $188million. So if you in the rural areas this is the
amount that we are talking about.
Mr Speaker, this $188million includes the same $50million
that all MPs received last year, less this $50million and we are left with
$138million, which is the amount that the Government has budgeted for this
Bottom-up Approach this year - $138milllion.
Mr Speaker, of this $138million, the Government will spend $70million
here in
Mr Speaker, this is the Government’s real commitment to
this Bottom-up Approach in this Budget, only $68million, what I cannot accept is
that this amount is largely unfunded.
In the recurrent estimates, the Government hopes to
collect $950million, including $200million increase on 2006 collections. According to this Budget, Mr Speaker, the
Government intends to spend $945million through the normal recurrent expending,
and with this, after spending all these money in
Mr Speaker, this is the true amount of money that is left
available to finance this Bottom up approach, a mere $5million according to
this Budget. So much for talking about
this bottom up approach.
Mr Speaker, $5million hardly match the Government’s
professed commitment to emphasize rural development through this much
talked-about bottom up approach. I would
have expected the Government to appropriate $200million projected on top of the
2006 collections instead of this meager amount of $5million.
As we all know, Mr Speaker, the Government has decided to
instead spend this $200million here in
Mr Speaker, what kind of commitment is this? It does not match the many promises of the
Government. Mr Speaker, there is no need
to over-emphasize the $2billion in the 2007 Development Budget because these
money will come from our close foreign donors, these are the same money that we
have been complaining about as mostly spent overseas.
Mr Speaker, last Friday during the debate on the Rearming
Motion, a prominent member of the Government said something like “why should we
trust them to provide security for us, they are foreigners”. Well, Mr Speaker, I hope that the Government
is not pursuing such nonsense reservations in this Budget.
As you know well, Mr Speaker, this Budget is the property
of the Sovereign State of Solomon
But putting aside what I have just said, I am pleased at
the attempt to emphasize rural development in this Budget. I do hope also that our foreign aid donors
will come in and support this budget.
Mr Speaker, when we talk about improving our rural
people, we must first and foremost provide for the movement of goods and
services, the movement of people and the fast transfer of information. We must talk about linking our people to
export centers and markets here and abroad, we must therefore talk about radios
and roads, and most importantly we must talk about shipping.
Mr Speaker, I came to appreciate the importance of
shipping industry in this country over the past two years only after I involved
directly in it. Mr Speaker, before this,
I have no idea about shipping except to know people traveling in ships from
islands to islands.
If you want to gain some idea on what an island economy
is, and this is an island economy, go down to the wharf, new MPs spend some
time at the wharf and you will come to appreciate in some way the nature of
this very important sector of our economy.
Go there and appreciate the frustrations, the
off-loadings, the movement of goods and services, the over-crowding of ships,
the inter-island commercial cargoes and markets, the delays and shipping
cancellations, the demand for ships, go there and see people sleeping at the
wharf waiting for the next available transport to travel home.
Mr
Speaker, during last December the Police put out three patrol boats at the
wharf to specifically make sure there were no over-crowding of ships. During this time two ships were stoned by
frustrated passengers who could not get on board, four ships went out of
service due to serious break-downs and nearly all ships went on and off due to
inadequate safety provisions on board.
Mr Speaker, in the middle of all these are second hand
ships rusting away yet over-working against increasing cost hoping to make ends
meet. Mr Speaker, this is a tough
industry, yet it is an industry that we cannot afford to ignore, it is just
simply vital for our rural people.
As I
look through this budget, the best that this very important sector can look
forward to is a plan, a plan that still hopes to attract some $4.8million. Mr Speaker, they interviewed me for this plan
in October 2005. Mr Speaker, the
shipping sector does not need a plan, it needs assistance now and I do hope
that this assistance will come soon.
Mr Speaker, there is so much in this Budget that needs to
be clarified, credit schemes, important land issues, intended reforms,
taxation. Mr Speaker, we need to
question why the Government has decided to get down hard on State-Owned
Enterprises and there is nothing about the Open-Stealing in the Public Service
Ministries. We need to question the
Banking and Finance propositions in this budget.
What I can say here, Mr Speaker for conclusion is that
the picture that is painted in this Budget is too good for comfort, especially
when the numbers appear to be far from our words, our intentions and the plans
put forward in this budget.
Mr Speaker, for conclusion allow me to me say as I
studied this Budget, and as I think about how we continue to mistreat the very
foreign donors who promised to pay for this Budget, when I read the concern
letter by the Minister of Foreign Affairs which appeared in the Solomon Start
last Friday, I cannot help but to come fully appreciate the intention of this
Budget to pay tithes because our last hope could well be, that the Heavens will
open its store upon this Budget.
With
these comments Mr Speaker, I resume my seat.
Thank you.
Mr Sogavare: I beg to move that this House do now adjourn.
The House adjourned at 5.20 pm
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