‘But critics need to believe it’
WHILE the public continues to criticise the Joint Taskforce- JANUS, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) reassures the critics that JANUS will make a comeback to deal with the long-overdue issues related to corruption.
Police Chief Mostyn Mangau told the media last week that Janus is still active with an assurance that they will return this year with good results.
He further gave some reasons for JANUS non-performance and one of the main ones is the current COVID-19 pandemic.
As reported Mangau said because of COVID-19, they have been deploying and shifting officers around the country.
But government observers and other critics who are also following the work of JANU since its establishment in 2016 spoken to this paper over the weekend said they will not buy such a response.
When asked why they won’t believe such a response, one observer told this paper that it is hard to believe it because the COVID-19 pandemic just happened to us last year.
“The response shows the public that they are just using COVID-19 as a scapegoat to protect JANUS non-performance for the past years,” the observer said.
This paper understood that in 2018 a foreigner and former Commissioner Matthew Varley said that there are 10 cases involving Members of Parliament (MPs) that are currently under active investigation by the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.
But this is not an easy task a senior police officer told this paper over the weekend.
“We have to understand that there were a lot of cases on their books in the corruption team that was not resolved for many years,” the officer said.
Also in 2018 Varley said there was also no rule system for them to be able to priorities and triage those cases.
So for the past year, they have been developing and implementing a new review and triage system on corruption cases in the RSIPF
The senior police officer who spoke to this paper said that the public needs to understand the investigation process.
Mangau however, told the media last week that now that they are familiar with COVID-19, this year is another year that they will work together to look at some of the outstanding issues from last year.
Task Force Janus is a joint effort between the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) and the Ministry of Finance & Treasury (MOFT).
The focus of the Task Force is to identify, apprehend, and prosecute individuals involved in fraud and corruption within but not limited to the Solomon Island Public Service.
By ANDREW FANASIA
Newsroom, Honiara
