REPLENISHING millions of dollars of cargo destroyed in the wake of Chinatown riots in November 2021 will get the same funding priority as the 17th Pacific Games’s, insiders have revealed.
The same treatment will apply to the release of $21 million the government owes the Commodities Export Marketing Authority (CEMA) Revitalisation Programme approved by Cabinet in 2021, insiders told Solomon Star last weekend.
Under the five-year CEMA programme, Cabinet approved some $77 million to revitalise the cocoa and copra buying centres across the country. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare officially participated at two of the buying centres – one in Kira Kira, Makira-Ulawa Province and the other at Malu’u on Malaita.
Both have since closed down because senior officials decided to syphon off all CEMA funding to bolster budget shortfalls in the SP Games coffers, forcing the CEMA Board to suspend the revitalisation programme.
Now, Prime Minister Sogavare, angry at what has been going on behind the scene without his knowledge, has ordered officials to prepare two Cabinet papers to address the Chinatown issue as well as the CEMA debacle.
It is the Prime Minister’s third order after senior officials from the Ministry of Finance & Treasury and his own office appear to have ignored his two initial orders – one in July and the second just two weeks ago.
It is not clear whether his most recent order for the production of the two items for Cabinet’s consideration had been complied with.
Cabinet was to consider the papers last week
Some senior officials, concerned about the attitude of some senior officials towards the Prime Minister, have raised the question of insubordination.
Why is the Prime Minister tagging along instead of acting to protect the integrity of his office? Clearly, this is a case of insubordination and officers so willingly engaged in such activities should be shown the door,” they said.
The government initially announced a funding package of $200 million to address the Chinatown losses. But the matter was put on the back burner until now, when some businesses in China town began to push the government to do something.
It is understood the government would collect an estimated $31 million in goods and sales tax each month – something the government might have already collected before the riots.
By Alfred Sasako
