Speaker seeks legal advice over fall-out
A MOTION of no confidence against Guadalcanal Premier Anthony Veke is expected to be tabled during Friday’s Provincial Assembly meeting.
Guadalcanal Province Speaker Abel Arabola has confirmed receiving the notice of the motion of no-confidence served to his office, also served to the Premier’s office and the Provincial Secretary.
“Yes, I have received the notice to move the motion last Friday. I am currently looking at it and deliberating on the scenario ahead of us in light of this notice,” he said yesterday.
“But it is up to me to provide feedback to the opposition group regarding the motion of no-confidence and make my assessment accordingly,” he said.
Mr Arabola, when interviewed on Monday, however pointed out that the planned motion of no-confidence offers a bleak scenario for the provincial administration as it could well hamper the passage of the provincial budget to be tabled at the upcoming budget meeting scheduled for the end of this month, March.
“There are many things that I will have to consider before I will make my assessment of the notice before Friday’s Full Assembly Meeting,” he said
“If the motion is passed on Friday, there is a provision in the Standing Orders that would enable a 48-hour adjournment period.
“This means if the motion is passed, we will resume the Full Assembly meeting again on Wednesday next week, to allow the new government to sort itself out.”
The Speaker said he is quite uneasy about the possible ramifications of the planned motion.
“If a new government is formed, they will only have two days, 28 and 29 March, to draw up a new budget, have the new PAC convened to deliberate on the budget and pass the Budget on Friday 30th March. This is quite an impossible feat, but that is what is required before we can access finance to deliver services.”
Mr Arabola said his apprehensions are mainly administrative in nature, and these has to do with access to much needed revenue for the government to deliver its services.
“This is very tight situation which might affect the passage of the budget. It may be that the budget may not be passed by the Assembly before the end of this month, which will be a problem for the province. People will suffer, and we might not afford to pay the school fees of our students studying at various institutions in the country, notably the Solomon Islands National University (SINU).”
“The Motion of no-confidence comes at a critical time for the government. A passage of the motion on Friday could hamper our efforts in passing our budget which is important for the province to enable the delivery of services to our people.
“The success of the motion would likely trigger a set of processes that will deny us funding from the Provincial Government. We will be affected on our ability to access the SIG Grant and also the Provincial Capacity Development Fund (PCDF). For the PCDF, it is likely that we may be disqualified.”
Already, the provincial budget is ready for the coming Budget meeting and the province’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will begin deliberating on the budget starting today, Tuesday ahead of the Budget Meeting on 30 March, Mr Arabola said.
Mr Arabola added so far, the PCDF being a key component of provincial government revenue, has yielded positive results for Guadalcanal Province, and the province is keen to ‘maintain the momentum’ on this crucial provincial support funding.
He said the province cannot afford to miss out this year on PCDF, which derived contributions from European Union, RAMSI, UNDP, UNDCF and the Solomon Islands Government, as the province has missed out on the funding previously as they failed to meet the standards set out to access the funds.
The Speaker told Solomon Star that he has been seeking legal advice from the Ministry of Provincial Government and Institutional Strengthening regarding the planned motion and will today (Tuesday) relay his assessment of the situation to the Premier and the mover of the no-confidence motion, Hon Gledal Bob Sesehala, the MPA for Ward 8, Talise Ward.
Meanwhile, the Speaker also confirmed to have received a letter from the MPA’s that made up the Executive Government, who are determined not to support the planned motion of no-confidence on Friday.
In a strong-worded letter of solidarity, also sighted by Solomon Star, 13 MPA’s of the Provincial Executive government, including the Premier, have signed a letter demonstrating their support for the current government to continue its administration to its ‘natural death’ within the next seven months before the new provincial elections, expected to take place around the end of 2018.
Only one MPA, Hon Joseph Tausili, MPA for Savulei Ward, did not sign the letter of solidarity, as he was not currently available, and who should be the 14 MPA in current Executive government of the 21-seat Guadalcanal Provincial Assembly.
