HOW do you deal with suspected corruption cases, particularly when it allegedly involves top politicians and, in some cases, heads of your own department or ministry?
For many public servants It is a dilemma they face every day. Many would rather say nothing for fear of losing their jobs. Some, on the other hand, believe they have a responsibility to expose such activities, because they believe the risk is worth taking for the common good.
Here is one documented case in Kilu’ufi Hospital, Auki, Malaita Province.
It involved three G-plated vehicles – two land cruisers and a three-ton truck. No public tender was ever called for the disposal of these vehicles since 2023. One applicant, an alleged relative of the Minister of Infrastructure Development (MID) Manasseh Maelanga, ended up being awarded the two land cruisers.
The alleged relative, who is a nursing officer at Kilu’ufi Hospital, was awarded two Toyota land cruisers, G4013 and G4014, without going through the pre-requisite normal tender process. These two Toyota land cruisers are running vehicles.
The third vehicle is an ISUZU 3-Ton Truck, G4215. This 3-Ton Truck was awarded to an individual not known to the Malaita Provincial Health establishment, according to documents.
All letter of expression of interest (EOI) for the three awarded vehicles were written using the Malaita Provincial Health Letterhead. This suggests that the two applications for the three vehicles were done by the nursing officer at Kilu’ufi Hospital.
It is evident that the handwritten endorsement purportedly given by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) to dispose of the three vehicles was not authentic.
Instead of addressing their letters of expression of interest to the chairman of Ministerial Tender Board, the applicants addressed their applications to the Director of Mechanical Engineering through the Minister of MID.
Reliable sources revealed that the Permanent Secretary of MHMS has admitted in an inter-ministerial loop of emails that, “Ideally, I would prefer to comply with the process and I am all for that. However, kindly note that this is political in nature (the request came from the top) and we have to manage it somehow and regardless of our urge to allow the process to take place. Let’s manage all perspectives……” this is straight from the horses’ mouth.
From the documents provided by the sources, the Permanent Secretary of MID simply jumped on the bandwagon, concurring with the rather “unprocedural activity”. Simply put, both PS of Health and PS MID have sacrificed the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act and the Financial Instruction to please politicians in allegedly instigating a cascade of unprocedural orders that reverberate throughout the entire government machinery under their jurisdiction.
To make matters worse, there was no public tender notice. The Director of Malaita Provincial Health was not aware of any formal information regarding the usual practise of tender process as specified in the in the PFM Act and the Financial Instruction,” the sources said.
The Permanent Secretary of MID allegedly instructed the Director of Logistics and Mechanical Division (LMD) to award the vehicles to the two individuals without thorough deliberation by the MID Tender Board.
“As a matter of fact, the Director of LMD, Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) was hesitant as it was unprocedural. Accordingly, the matter was forwarded to the MID Tender Board for proper deliberation,” according to documents.
“The matter is even worse when one realises the Permanent Secretary of MID is the chairman of the MID Tender Board,” sources said.
“The most astonishing fact was that all three vehicles under the Ministry of Health and Medical Services were awarded nonprocedurally to the relatives and close associates of the Minister of MID. Given that this was handled at the ministerial level, the Minister of Health and Medical Services might have played a role in this inter-ministerial corrupt practice,” the sources said.
The Permanent Secretary of MHMS and MID appear to have succumbed to political pressure in allegedly engaging in collaborative unprocedural decision making that amounts to corrupt practices to please politicians. In doing so, their actions have jeopardised government machinery institutional procedures.
The Solomon Star has sighted documents relating to the case. MHMS was to have discussed the matter in a meeting in Honiara last week. The outcome of the meeting was unknown.
Sadly, this saga was played out right in plain sight of the government employees within MHMS and MID and is probably a tip of the iceberg of corrupt so widespread in the public sector and is inherent in the government machinery.
“Besides, why should all government employees comply with the orders from the permanent secretaries when their decisions are mostly compromised,” angry employees asked.
By Alfred Sasako
