Government has been urged to immediately deport the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA) and then ten (10) Singaporeans consultant.
The Workers Union of Solomon Islands, WUSI, in a statement yesterday made the call saying the Government must ban them from re-entering the country.
The WUSI General Secretary Tony Kagovai said, these eleven Singaporeans had entered the country and were working for some time with SIPA without Work and Residence permits and this constitutes a very serious breach of Solomon Islands laws.
Mr. Kagovai also reiterated his call for the Government to set up an immediate investigation into how these Singaporeans entered and actually worked in the country without work and residence permits.
The Union Secretary also calls on the Government to investigate into how the ten(10) Singaporean consultants and Collin Yow decided to produce a very expensive five-year reform programme; which is very vague on details, instead of implementing the restructure proposed by the ADB scoping mission in its November 2011 Report.
Mr. Kagovai said, that both the ADB report and the report subsequently produced by the ten (10) Singaporean consultants are with WUSI.
“In terms of comparing the costs of the two reform proposals, the ADB “proposed restructure” would cost $11 million dollars to implement over a period of ten years from 2012 to 2022. This is the proposed restructure which the ten (10) Singaporeans and their CEO Mr. Yow were brought in to implement.
“Instead the ten (10) Singaporeans and the CEO with the blessing of the Chairman Nolen Leni came up with a five (5) year reform programme that would cost SIPA (196 million, 800 thousand US Dollars).
“When you convert that figure into SBD using the rate of 0.1258 which we obtained from one of the commercial banks last Friday, the cost of the five year reform programme proposed by the Singaporeans would cost in Solomon Islands dollars (SBD 1 billion, 564 million, 387 thousand, and 917 dollars over a five year period from 2013 to 2017).”
Mr. Kagovai said, that the dispute at SIPA is all about the manner in which the Singaporeans were recruited and brought in and worked illegally in the country and over the fact that the eleven Singaporeans who were brought in to implement a 11-million dollar restructure programme proposed by ADB had already spent SBD$29 Million over 18 months and there is no tangible justification for such a huge cost.
“Their costly alternative reform programme is also at the heart of the dispute and Chairman Leni needs a lot of explanations to the nation for all these issues.”
