Premier Suidani prepares to respond to wild allegations
The Malaita Provincial Premier Daniel Suidani has labeled the allegations against him by the mover of the upcoming motion of no confidence as wild allegations.
Speaking to Solomon Star Auki over the weekend Premier Suidani said some of those allegations are wild allegations and are news to him and his MARA government.
Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) for Ward 3 Martin Fini file a historical third motion of no confidence against Premier Suidani with five allegations which mainly about misappropriation of funds amounting to SBD$2million and abusing of power.
The Premier said he is ready to respond to those allegations as he has nothing to hide when the assembly meet on 7th February 2023.
He said some of those allegations raised are administration matters.
The Ward 3 MPA has issued five points notice with the following grounds which he claimed leads to lack of confidence in the leadership of Premier Suidani and his MARA government.
1. “In late 2022, the premier extracted $SBD200,000 cash from the Chinese owned Winwin Mining Company when facilitating the signing of the surface access agreement between the company and the land owners from East Fataleka.
“The premier then proceeded to share the monies between himself, his political advisor, Celsius Talifilu and his executives at $SBD11,000 per head, a blatant abuse of his power.
2. “The premier also has undue influence on the accounting specialist (seconded staff from MPGIS) to approve payments that are non-compliant with the Financial Management Ordinance (FMO) part 3,9 (3) and financial instructions.
“Examples include using the ADM-Consultancy cost (account code 6-0338) to pay the wages of the premier’s personal security, “the orange uniform” since 2021 (refer to Provincial Public Accounts Committee Report 2022/2023 supplementary budget estimates).
“Furthermore, in establishing the “Orange Uniform” the premier by-passed all due processes such as assembly approval, executive approval and recruitment process.
3. “The premier directly appointed REACH Consultancy, a firm owned by the former PS Mr Fredrick Fa’abasua to work on the “15 years Malaita Development Aspiration” by-passing the normal tender compliance and procurement processes.
“Further still, the acting PS David Filia Tuita was conveniently by-passed by the premier to allow REACH consultancy to proceed without signing a formal binding contract following the executive’s approval.
“Consequently, the consultancy fee of $SBD60,000 awarded by the premier ($SBD32,000 of which has been paid to the REACH consultancy firm) constitutes an illegal payment.
4. “Mismanagement and misappropriation of various budget codes including the premier’s discretionary fund to illegal fund non-approved activities by the premier.
“In contravention of the FMO 2018, part 3, 9(3), which requires assembly approval of any virement above 5 percent of budget. Premier pillaged various budgets codes including the provincial assembly budget to fund his political party campaigns across Malaita.
“These unauthorized payments totaled $SBD2m, two times in excess of the budget for the office of the premier for 2022.
5. “The premier and his executive government’s non-compliance and systemic mismanagement of public funds has denied Malaita province the only two sources of capital funds available to its; the PCDF and Ward Development grants, the latter since 2020.
“The public of Malaita province are therefore deprived of millions of dollars of funds urgently required for clinics, markets, schools and other vital capital projects, all because of the irresponsible leadership, or lack there-off by the premier.
The Premier said while motion of no confidence is a democratic process, he maintained that the intention of the motion to remove him from power is very clear since the beginning of his leadership.
He said a total of three motion of no confidence with wild allegations and support from the central government during MARA’s term in power sounds like abusing of the democratic process at its best.
While the Premier is willing and fully prepare to respond to what he termed as wild allegations labeled against him and his MARA government, he said the responsible Minister and Attorney General Chambers should respond and clarify if the Malaita revised budget of 2022/2023 was legally defeated.
By WILSON SAENI
Solomon Star, Auki
