Politics
Trouble Unending For Solomon Islands
- Assassination attempt
- Finance Minister’s resignation
- No confidence motion
If members of the private sector in the Solomon Islands are having cold feet over the government’s push for a private sector-led programme of economic recovery and growth, no one should really blame them. Businesses in this besieged island nation are discovering there is a heavy price to pay for responding to the state’s call of duty. One of them, Robert Goh, almost paid with his life.
The man was driving out of his heavily guarded home, up on a ridge that overlooks Honiara, one Saturday night last November when he was shot.
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“The gunman’s bullet was slightly off-target, exploding through my car and hitting me in the stomach,” Goh said. He was lucky— an emergency surgery at the drugs and staff-depleted National Hospital in Honiara the same night and a medical evacuation to Cairns Base Hospital in Australia the next day.
Goh, a chartered accountant, believes the assassination attempt was politically motivated.
A naturalised citizen of the Solomon Islands for many years, Goh was also senior adviser to Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza. He was chair of the Kemakeza’s think-tank, a committee of experts from the public and private sectors as well as civil society, including representatives from women and youth groups.
The attempt on Goh’s life occurred the same week in which militants—believed to include some police officers—raided some Honiara shops in broad daylight and took assorted goods, liquor mainly. One of the shops raided belongs to Y Sato, a well-known businessman in Honiara and also a Member of Parliament. Sato is also Kemakeza’s special envoy to the Weathercoast region of Guadalcanal, the domain of renegade militant Harold Keke.
More troubling signs came with the sudden resignation last month of Laurie Chan, the country’s finance minister. Kemakeza refused to accept Chan’s resignation and instead convinced the young Honiara shipping tycoon to accept the Foreign Affairs portfolio.
Chan has accepted the ministerial change, but has yet to disclose the reason for his sudden departure from the finance ministry.
People close to Chan, however, confirmed the man resigned as a matter of principle. Minutes after announcing government’s 2003 budget in parliament, Chan—his friends say —was ordered to break what he had told parliament he wouldn’t do: be a party to unauthorised use of government funds.
Some members of the police force apparently forced Chan to sign a government cheque of S$3.6 million which was then cashed by the ANZ Bank in Honiara after trading hours. The money was for the unpaid salaries of police officers.
The order to pay the money apparently came from Kemakeza himself, and Chan sent his resignation to the prime minister straight after the incident.
After convincing Chan to remain in his cabinet, Kemakeza got his deputy, Snyder Rini to take over the finance portfolio. If Kemakeza thinks this has resolved matters, the man is terribly mistaken. The opposition has already filed a no-confidence motion against him.
Yet in ordering Chan to make payments that are not budgeted for and outside normal procedures, Kemakeza risks jeopardising the recovery package of his near-bankrupt economy.
In particular, he stands to anger international donor agencies like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. In offering to assist the Solomon Islands, these agencies have made it clear to Kemakeza and his government that aid offered must be used where it was intended and they would not tolerate any deviation, no matter how minute.
“My understanding is that the donor governments are particularly concerned that the conditionalities attached to their funds are followed to the letter,” Solomon Islands Finance Secretary, Lloyd Powell said in an earlier interview.
“If these are not followed, it is my expectation that these donors would withdraw their pledges to finance the recovery programme. The responsibility rests with the Solomon Islands government to ensure it acts accordingly.”
Powell had spoken to Islands Business a week before Chan delivered in parliament what was to be his last budget. But the two men were speaking the same tune.
“Accountability and transparency must be the order of the day,” Chan told parliament.
“All politicians and community leaders have an obligation to their electorates to clearly explain and justify what they intend to do and achieve. And along the way, they must continue to report their actions and achievements.
“If mistakes are made, we must own up to them, and take remedial actions as soon as possible. Anything less is a failure on our part to live up to the expectations of the people, the parliament and indeed the international community.”
Chan’s budget not only created history for its brevity in delivery, but it was also clear that it would ruffle a few feathers. Declaring government must repay its ballooning debts totalling S$2 billion and contain costs, the former finance minister said no more compensation for property damage suffered during the ethnic tension would be made in 2003. Departmental expenditures have also been cut from S$102 million in 2002 to S$97 million in 2003.
“Ministries and public sector officers within them who engage in unauthorised spending will no longer be committing the government to these outlays,” Chan told parliament.
“The government will not accept delivery of responsibility for any goods or services that are obtained without proper authority. Any servants of the crown involved in improper use of public funds must be held accountable and will be subject to the rule of law.”
However, despite earlier assurances that it was committed to reducing costs, the Kemakeza government had budgeted for a S$9 million increase in total expenditures for 2003 at S$259 million.
Even the total budget payroll at S$123 million is S$3 million more than last year. And this comes even with the proposed laying off of over 1000 government workers.
Taiwan and New Zealand have offered to help meet the cost of the redundancy, but Chan did tell parliament that dilly dallying over the matter makes the exercise more costly.
“The governments of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and New Zealand have pledged financial grants to launch our redundancy programme. But due to its late commencement, this is now likely to cost an additional S$30 million.
“Associated carrying costs have contributed a further S$10 million to cover the national deficit and we will need additional assistance to cover these blowouts,” Chan said.
The country will not be able to meet all its debt repayments in 2003 as well. S$39 million, which is 15 percent of all government revenue, has been set aside for debt servicing. Chan admits this falls far short of what lenders want. Government will have to negotiate a compromised debt payment deal, he said.
Although resignation was not mentioned in his budget address in parliament, Chan did admit one thing: “The electorate is tired of public sector waste and the misuse of taxpayers’ money—and so am I.”
