Gov’t pledge to tackle unexplained wealth
THE Government will bring to parliament an Unexplained Wealth Bill.
And Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said this will go in as a separate bill.
He announced this in parliament.
“Although the National Anti-Corruption Strategy bill may not address the unexplained wealth issue, a separate bill will be brought into the house for that matter,” Mr Sogavare said.
“The unexplained wealth will be highlighted as well in the Anti-Corruption Strategy,” he added.
Mr Sogavare said the global rankings that positioned Solomon Islands as one of the worst corrupt nation in the world must be taken as a challenge by leaders.
“Leaders and the entire nation must work together to fight corruption and rescue our resource-rich country out from economic stagnation.
“This Anti-Corruption Strategy must proceed to ensure we are heading in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, Attorney General James Apaniai has explained compensation paid out by Members of Parliament (MPs) for alleged incidents of any wrong doing will not be seen as corruption, even if money used was from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Mr Apania was responding to a question ask by MP for North East Guadalcanal Dr Derek Sikua about compensation demands, which sometimes put pressures on MPs to use funds committed for other projects, to meet compensate claims.
Dr Sikua was curious since there are incidences of murder committed by his constituents against people from other islands, which resulted in compensation claims and threats to his people not to entertown until demands are met.
He said the claims were normally left to MPs to settle.
He questioned whether the government has any budget for compensation, since diverting of CDF funds for such demands could violate the corruption laws and land MPs in court.
But Mr Apaniai said such payment of compensation to the demanding group does not amount to corruption as stipulated in the bill, seeing that MPs will not benefit out from the money paid.
He said such situation is explained in the bill, thus MPs should not worry about the source of money use to pay for compensation on behalf of people from his constituency or tribe, because MPs are not intended to receive any benefit.
He added that unless MPs received benefit from the money paid then that will make the transaction illegal.
By AATAI JOHN
