FORMER MINISTER for Mines and Member of Parliament (MP) for South Guadalcanal David Day Pacha was absent in Parliament end of July when questions down for his answers were asked by Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Choiseul, Connelly Sandakabatu.
The Mines Minister was supposed to respond to the question of whether a letter of intent has been issued to Sunshine Minerals Limited with respect to Jejevo tenement, in the Isabel Province.
It was understood that the supplementary question to be followed for the minister to respond to may relate to his late night meeting, with an Asian Miner at the Car Park Hotel on April this year.
It was alleged that the minister was spotted on April 21st at the Heritage Park Hotel Car Park, around 10.40pm secretly meeting with an Asian miner in the minister’s vehicle.
His late night meeting with the Asian miner believed to be Ray Chu of Asia Pacific Investment Development (APID) was shown in a video footage descending the steps of his hotel room and ducked in the minister’s car.
It was also alleged the secret meeting lasted for 10 minutes before the footage showed the businessman exiting from the car and went back to his hotel room.
This secret meeting sparked curiosity amongst the public questioning the integrity of the Minister, thus demanding answers which Day Pacha is yet to make any response to.
The Minister travelled overseas when the question was initially raised through the mainstream media a few weeks ago.
However, one MP asked parliament yesterday to wait for few minutes for the minister to turn up and answer the question but Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare stood up to convey the message left behind by Mr Pacha.
Mr Sogavare said the, minister told him that he won’t respond to the questions at this time because his Permanent Secretary does not prepare the answers for him to read in Parliament, thus will have to wait until the answers are made available.
So Mr Sandakabatu’s question was unanswered and deferred to a later date.
