Solomon Power Tanagai Solar Farm under the cloud
COMMERCIAL and individual buyers who used individual members of the Tanagai House of Chiefs to acquire land in and around Honiara have been warned to expect drastic changes to their ownership from early next year, it was revealed yesterday.
The Board of Trustees of the Tanagai House of Chiefs will be reviewed in January, Chief Damaso Roko, the original Trustee of the Tanagai House of Chiefs’ Board of Trustees, told Sunday Star in an exclusive interview yesterday.
Chief Roko said those who acquired their land through the proper and lawful manner have nothing to fear.
“The proper process is to first submit your land application to the Board of Trustees.
Once the Board of Trustees has endorsed your application, and you have fulfilled your customarily requirements including the payment of the parcel of land to the Board of Trustees, you are then free to register your land,” he said.
But he warned that those who acquired land using individual members of the Board of Trustees and the law as an umbrella to cover their actions should be worried.
He cited a case involving Solomon Power which acquired a four-hectare tract of land at Tanagai for the company’s solar farm project.
“The Solomon Power deal is the most corrupt case I can remember. The tract of land was acquired in the most corrupt way. The person who said he registered the land in the first place never applied to the Board of Trustees to buy the land in the first place.
“I remember it was one of the trustees who, without my knowledge as someone who holds the vesting order over the parcel, had asked the chair of the Board of Trustees to endorse the sale of a parcel of land at Kogulai. It definitely was not Tanagai.
“The details of the parcel number were changed at the Office of the Registrar of Titles from Kogulai to Tanagai,” Chief Roko said.
“The sale and transfer of the title was done in the most dishonest way. Solomon Power officials knew there was an interest in that parcel of land and yet it went ahead with the purchase from businessman Bernard Garo.”
Chief Roko said the interest was a George Keni, who met all the requirements set by the Board of Trustees for all land sales. For example, Mr. Keni paid the price for the piece if land, he paid the chupu and each time there was a death in our area, he showed up to pay his respects.
“On the basis of fulfilling his obligations, Mr. Keni began building a three-bedroom house on the land. It was almost three quarters completed when Solomon Power asked Mr Garo to demolish his house, claiming it encroached on Solomon Power Land,” Chief Roko said.
“As someone responsible for accepting and endorsing Mr Keni’s application to buy the land I am willing to exercise my vesting power in stopping Solomon Power from further work in the area unless it repays all the financial costs incurred by Mr. Keni,” Chief Roko said.
“The psychological impact of what Solomon Power has done to him cannot be measured in financial terms. He and his family are suffering and Solomon Power must meet its social obligation to this individual,” he said.
“If this is not done, I will slap a caveat over the land where the solar farm project is being developed until the company reconcile the injustice tit has inflicted on Keni’s young family. I could do this as early as later this week,” Chief Roko said.
He said land buyers must never forget that while some chiefs on the Board of Trustees of the Tanagai House of Chiefs are elected, I am not. I am a born Chief. That is why I have the vesting orders,” Chief Roko said.
Asked how businessman Bernard Garo got the controversial land in the first place, Chief Roko said Mr. Garo was given a much smaller piece of land – perhaps less than half a hectare – in a different location from the site where the solar farm is located. This was before the ethnic tension.
“Mr Garo’s wife is my cousin. We decided to give him in recognition of his marriage to my cousin and also because women own land in Guadalcanal,” Chief Roko said.
The title of that gifted land was never transferred to Mr. Garo due to the ethnic tension, he said.
“It would appear Mr Garo mistook the size and the area gifted to him, registered it without first checking with us and then sold it to Solomon Power. It must deal with this mess or I will make sure the Solar Farm does not go beyond where it is right now.”
Mr. George Keni is claiming $426, 000 compensation from Solomon Power for ordering the demolition of his partially completed house on the land. The figure is based on an independent evaluation.
Mr. Keni is repaying a loan he had obtained for building the house.
Solomon Power’s Chief Executive Officer Donald Kiriau said the company was dealing with registered land, not customary.
Mr. Kiriau said Solomon Power’s lawyer had advised that the transaction was “normal” even though the payment of the transfer consideration (title) was finally made a month after the title was transferred.
He said Mr. Garo had to be asked to demolish Mr. Keni’s house because Solomon Power does not want any structure on its land.
Mr. Kiriau also confirmed Mr. Garo had shared proceeds from the sale with members of the Tanagai House of Chiefs.
Chief Roko said he believed Mr. Garo gave $500, 000 to certain people who helped facilitate the transaction, including transfer of the title. He did not elaborate.
Documents obtained by Solomon Star show, among other things that Solomon Power put undue pressure on Mr. Garo to demolish Mr. Keni’s house before the payment could be made.
As a result, Mr. Keni’s house was demolished on 12th March this year. On 18th March – that is six days later, Solomon Power released the payment of $3, 121, 000 to Mr. Garo, who could not be reached for comments.
Commissioner of Lands Alan McNeil told Solomon Star in response to a question on the payment of title transfer that:
“Payment for a title transfer should ideally happen at exactly the same moment as the transfer is lodged for registration. If a payment is made long before or long after the title transfer is registered, there is an increased risk of something going wrong, such as one of the parties passes away, or one or the other party reneged on the agreement.
“In some cases there may be a legal agreement in place to set out when and how the transfer consideration is to be paid and title transfer to be registered if they are not occurring at the same time.
“When land title is transferred, the land and everything permanently attached to it are transferred, such as buildings and other structures. The previous owner is under no obligation to demolish any structure, because they are now owned by the purchaser, unless there is some separate legal agreement reached between buyer and seller that clarifies this otherwise,” Mr. McNeil said.
By ALFRED SASAKO
Newsroom, Honiara
