THE Leadership Code Commission (LCC) will investigate Member of Parliament (MP) for East Guadalcanal, Bradley Tovosia after he was charged by police on Monday.
Tovosia, who is the member of the Opposition, faces charges of abuse of office and demanding money with menaces with former Premier of Guadalcanal Anthony Veke.
Newly appointed chairman of LCC, Francis Luza ,said the Commission has discretion power to do investigation on its own if the allegation was reported on media.
He said, following the report of Tovosia’s charge on media, the Commission will take steps to investigate it.
But Luza, former chairman of Trade Dispute Panel, said the Commission does not have the power under the LCC Act to penalise Tovosia.
He said this is because the LCC Integrity Bill is still in the draft stage.
Luza said, the Bill if becomes an Act, will give more power to the Commission to penalise leaders like in other jurisdictions in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, Luza said there are couple of cases involving national leaders still pending before the commission.
He believes the cases involve former and current members of Parliament.
However, Luza did not want to disclose the names of these national leaders.
Tovosia is facing one count of abuse of office and 13 counts of demanding money with menaces.
He committed these offences in 2010 when working at the Guadalcanal Provincial Assembly.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
