HONIARA City Council (HCC) was honoured to have a courtesy visitation from the Australia High Commissioner to Solomon Islands (SI), His Excellency (HE) Rod Hilton, Monday.
Lord Mayor Edward Siapu, highlighted on behalf of the city council office of Lord Mayor, councillors, city clerk and staff, would like to extend his belated congratulations on His Excellency’s (HE) appointment as the Australia High Commissioner to Solomon Islands.
He explained Australia is the closest neighbour and has continuously been the biggest donor to Solomon Islands, and thus the enormous support continues to be provided for the national government and organizations in the Solomon Islands, my government and my people truly acknowledged.
“HCC is a service-oriented organization which is mandated to deliver its services effectively and efficiently,” the mayor said.
The ongoing programs of HCC on its service delivery in various sectors: health, law and order, commerce and trade, waste management and control, women’s development, youth development and sports.
City Mayor further highlights that effective and efficient service delivery requires a sound institutional base or structure, of which HCC needs institutional strengthening and capacity building across all divisions.
“As an institution, we are trying our outmost best to provide regular, reliable and affordable services in waste management, law enforcement markets and others. HCC continues to face challenges in terms of resources and the attitude problem of people,” he said.
This year 2023, HCC is hosting Pacific Games 2023, so the expectations the government and people have on HCC to make Honiara clean, safe and green have exceeded HCC’s capacity to deliver. HCC will continue with its normal service delivery in terms of waste management, law enforcement, markets and so on during the Pacific Games, says the city mayor.
However, with the influx of athletes, officials and visitors to Honiara during the Games, 2023, HCC expects demand for services to double or even triple. This requires additional resources in terms of waste management vehicles to collect and dispose of waste, landfill equipment to manage the landfill for waste disposal, vehicles for law enforcement teams, communication equipment for law enforcement teams and additional staff on temporary or casual employment.
“HCC has submitted its work plan and budget to the national government. To date, we are still waiting for the results,” he uttered.
The City Mayor further expressed his thanks and acknowledgements to the government and people of Australia for injecting millions of dollars to help Solomon Islands host the Pacific Games.
