A MEMBER of Parliament (MP) is appealing for police investigation on those who allegedly committed fraud as per the findings of the audit report on the Economic Stimulus Package.
This MP was among three MPs that the audit report found to have received $1.8 million under the ESP.
The MP, who requested the non-publication of his name, has categorically denied receiving such amount of money.
“Only $600,000 was deposited into the Constituency’s account.
“I don’t know where the rest of the money came from,” the MP said.
The MP said the police need to carry out an investigation to find who has committed the fraud.
According to Auditor General, David Teika Dennis, payments totalling $14 million were made to 24 Constituency Development Offices.
Mr Dennis said MPs did not have to provide a detailed project plan to access these funds.
“Although standard funding agreements were used which included detailed reporting requirements, the reporting generally provided little detail about what had been achieved with the funds.
“The limited reporting indicated that grants had been used for a range of purposes, from buying excavators and dump trucks for maintaining roads, buying ships and giving grants to constituents to start taxi services,” he said.
“For one agreement the purpose of the grant was ‘to support projects within the Constituency.’
“At the time of our audit we identified one case where funds had not been distributed, with the Constituency Development Office still trying to identify a suitable ship to purchase,” he added.
Furthermore, $41.3 million was paid to Constituency Development Offices to distribute to constituents.
“In most cases the offices received $600,000 in 2020 and a further $200,000 in June or July 2021.
“Applications were called for from Members of Parliament, but it appears some Constituency Development Offices of some MPs received grants even though they did not apply,” he said.
One Constituency Development Office that the OAG spoke to did not realize the funds were ESP funds.
“There was little reporting on how the funds were used. Apart from confirming that these funds were paid to Members of Parliament through the MoFT payment system there was no practical way, through any documentation review, of confirming how the funds were used,” he said,
The ESP Oversight Committee told the audit that applicants sometimes received less funding than they applied for due to limited available funding.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
Solomon Star, Honiara
