Nothing sly about Sea Star loan [1]
Sunday, September 30, 2018 - 11:39
From the House by Pesi Fonua
A claim by the Prime Minister, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva that a property of Sea Star Ltd. at the Tu’imatamoana Wharf had been sold for $3 million pa’anga and was now owned by a Chinese/Tongan, was disputed in parliament during debate on the Annual Report of the Ministry of Fisheries. The PM claimed that nobody knew where the $3 million went.
It appeared that the PM was mistaken.
He also queried why a $3 million loan went to King George Tupou V and the Sea Star Ltd.
The Prime Minister's comments shocked members of the House while they were deliberating the 2016-17 Annual Report of the Ministry of Fisheries on Tuesday, 25 September.
Siaosi Sovaleni objected that there was nothing sly about it. Then on the following day, Wednesday, he told parliament that he had one some research on the Sea Star property issue and found that the property remained under the management of the Tonga Asset Managers and Associates Ltd. TAMA. He said that the property had been rented $6,000 a month since 2015. [It had not been sold].
The PM, however, had changed his stance on the issue, this time he said that Sea Star borrowed $3 million from the Asian Development Bank and the loan “was still there.”
Ship wrecks
As the House focused their attention at the Tu‘imatamoana Wharf and the Ministry of Fisheries properties in the area, Lord Tu‘iha‘angana expressed his concern over a number of ship wrecks that littered the area, and the same people who own the wrecks owed a lot of money to government.
[He was referring to ships that belonged to a family shipping company owned by one of the Cabinet Ministers. The voice of the Minister concerned could be heard in the background saying that he would clarify the situation, but he didn’t.]
While there was confusion over government assets, there was also a discrepancy of unpaid government workers.
The Ha’apai People Representative No. 12, Mo‘ale Finau who, the day before, had raised his concern that road sweepers in his constituency had not been paid for three months, thanked government that these three sweepers had been paid.
The PM said that he wanted to increase the wages of the street sweepers, who he said were doing a good job but there had been opposition from the current system of Government - he used the words "sisi-tamu" [dumb-system]. He said though that he would not use "sisi-tamu" he will just use "system".
[The words sisi-tamu was introduced by the Chairman of the Whole House Committee Veivosa Light of Day Taka (Ha'apai People’s Representative No. 13) alluding that the system is dumb.]
In the debate sisi-tamu was used by some members of Cabinet and of the House who blamed the current system of government for any problems that the country was facing.
Unpaid labour
While on the issue of unpaid labourers, Lord Tu‘ilakepa told the House that staff of the Statistics Department who worked overtime following Cyclone Gita, had not been paid for six months.
Hon. Pohiva Tu‘i‘onetoa explained that they have not been paid because they were working within their working hours during the cyclone. He explained that because of the cyclone, they were asked if they wanted to work or to go home, and those who worked were the one who had not been paid.
He said that they would be paid for working during their working hours, during the cyclone.
Workers were also not entitled for a salary if they worked on Sundays, according to the Tongan law.
Siaosi Sovaleni pointed out that in a State of Emergency, as during a cyclone, civil servants were entitled to be paid for working on Sundays.
The PM stressed that the problem was the people’s mind-set. He said that government was trying to reform the people’s mind-set.
When the House moved on to debate the Annual Report of t he Ombudsman 2016-17 Lord Nuku wanted to know about a court case that was reported in the annual report, that the Prime Minister brought against the Ombudsman. He wanted to know what was the case?
The Minister of Police, Hon. Mateni Tapueluelu, said that the court threw the case out of court because the office of the Ombudsman was investigating a case, “that they were not supposed to investigate.”
“What was the case?” asked Lord Nuku.
Hon. Tapueluelu responded that it was a 2016 Civil Case.
[The case between the Prime Minister and the Ombudsman remains unknown because the 2016-17 Annual Report of the Ombudsman has not been released to the public].
During the afternoon session, the House passed an Amendment to the Constitution 2018 with votes 16-0 and the 2016-17 Annual Report of the Ministry of Meterology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communication (MEIDECC) with votes of 15-0.
They also passed the 2016-17 Annual report of the Board of Public Service Retirement Fund with 17-0 votes, the 2016-17 Annual Report of the Ministry of Health 17-0, the 2016-17 Annual report of the Ministry of Fisheries 17-0, the 2016-2017 Annual Report of the Auditor General 12-0
The Annual Report of the Ombudsman 2016-17 was passed with 17-0 votes.