First female premier maintains her leadership
Santa Isabel Provincial Premier Hon. Rhoda Sikilabu survived the motion of no confidence against her leadership on Monday.
The motion moved by MPA for Ward 2, Havulei, Hon. Ian Mason was defeated with 7 MPAs voted for and 9 MPAs voted against.
Following her victory, Premier Sikilabu called on Isabel leaders to work together to move the development aspirations of the province forward.
She said her victory speaks for itself of the trust in her leadership.
She said the allegations levelled against her leadership through the motion were personal as all decisions concerning the interests of the province were determined by the provincial executives.
She said one of the issues that will be tabled today is the mining license.
This is one of the grounds citing the Premier’s negligence in upholding due processes for approving and issuing of certificates of mining business licenses.
Recently it was claimed that Isabel Provincial Government (IPG) has been influenced to reduce the $5m License Fee for Mining down to $1m.
But she said this will be reviewed.
“We are going to review the business mining license to be genuine to our investors.
“Of course, there will be objections and opposition but how do we justify, we are genuine to our investors,” she said.
She said if we cross checked with other provinces it is cheaper. For example, in Choiseul province the mining business license is 1 million, while for Guadalcanal it is only $750,000.
She said these are the areas to consider when reviewing mining business licenses.
BY CHARLES KADAMANA
