Petition unravels how PM believes he rules above the law [1] Nuku'alofa, TongaMonday, November 5, 2018 - 15:28. Updated on Monday, November 5, 2018 - 18:50.From the House by Pesi Fonua PM Pohiva addresses a press conference. Fa'onelua Centre, 2 November 2018. Press Conference excerpt, voice of PM Pohiva: Tonga’s 2017-2018 Parliament was scheduled to end on 31 October 2018, but the session has continued into November because of difficulties the House faces in processing a Petition signed by 3,330 people calling for the Impeachment of the Prime Minister and six Cabinet Ministers. Now, the Speaker, Lord Fakafanua, in a sitting scheduled for 7:00pm tomorrow evening (Tuesday November 6), is expected to announce what parliament is going to do. At least, this is what the Prime Minister Hon. 'Akilisi Pohiva told a press conference he called on Friday, last week, that the final decision for the House to proceed and impeach the Prime Minister and six Cabinet Ministers rested with the Speaker of the House, Lord Fakafanua. The PM’s conclusion followed a long parliamentary session on Thursday night (November 1), where members argued until 1:15am on Friday morning, before the Speaker closed the House, to be resumed on Tuesday evening, following a Public Holiday today, November 5. Eye opener The petition for the impeachment of the Prime Minister and six of his Cabinet Ministers has become an eye-opener for Tongans, exposing the failings of the “more democratic system” of government and the members they have elected. The petition, read in the House on 13 June, called for an urgent audit of specific expenditures in the last three years’ budget allocations of seven Cabinet Ministers, in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Infrastructure and Tourism, Finance, Education and Training, Police, Revenue and Customs, Justice, Labour and Commerce. Since then there has been a constant struggle in the House over procedure concerning the order of presentation of the Auditor General’s Report, and the responses required from the Ministers, who are accused of nothing less than mishandling public funds. Questions of impartiality A final decision by the House, on whether to proceed and impeach the Prime Minister and his six Cabinet Ministers will be an extremely difficult decision for the House to make. There has been finger pointing in the House, questioning the impartiality of members to deal with the issue. There has been a proposition for the No. 11 People’s Representative for ‘Eua, Tevita Lavemaau, who tabled the Petition, to vacate his seat in the Standing Committee on Privilege, because there were claims that he would not be impartial. The Standing Committee on Privilege is required to process the petition and other materials relating to the petition before they are presented to the House. On the other hand, the Auditor General's Report highlighted that proper procedure had not been followed in the management of public funds. He reported that people were employed by the Prime Minister by a single source selection process. He found there was unpaid tax and there were no reports of what they had achieved with the expenditure. For example, the PM's expenditure of $200,000 on software development for education was a specific focus in the report. The Auditor also found there was no report on what was achieved by the hiring of a Director of Sports. Meanwhile, the PM and accused ministers claimed that the report of the Auditor General was not impartial. But in this unresolved debacle, what is not lost on the public is that the very people who are accused of financial mismanagement want to vote on whether or not they should impeach themselves. Decisions Two options for dealing with the impeachment were voiced in the House before it closed last week. One was to pass it off to “the people” and the other was for the Speaker to deal with it. The PM said that since the report of the Auditor General had been broadcast and his own response had been broadcast, they should just leave it for the People to come to their own conclusions. But he gave no explanation as to how this might resolve the petition in the democratic parliamentary process. The second option, proposed by Lord Tu'ivakano was for the Speaker to make the final decision himself on whether to proceed to impeachment. The Constitution states that in the case of impeachment, a trial shall be conducted over which the Chief Justice shall preside. Press Conference After Thursday’s late night sitting, the Prime Minister called a Press Conference on Friday afternoon and talked about the procurement process and his hiring of individuals. Toward the end of the press conference at the Fa'onelua Centre he admitted that he had broken the law. He wanted to explain that breaking the law and not following government’s working procedure was his way of doing things, and that was how he got to where he is today. PM Pohiva was answering a question by Melemanu Fiu Bloomfield of Radio FM81.1. “I have got to where I am because there are times that I have to break the law. There are calls for me from higher places than the law.” He expressed his frustration over how he could not get a report from the Ministry of Education on the task that was completed by an IT expert, who was paid more than $200,000 for five months work to introduce new software for the Ministry of Education. He also expressed his frustration with his government's procurement process so that he bypassed them and recruited people to do what he thought should be done. When a concern was raised on how could Tonga proceed to achieve democratic reform, if the PM himself boasted that he got to where he is by breaking the law, there was no response from the PM. Impeachment The Tongan Parliament has completed the initial process to impeach the Prime Minister and six Cabinet Ministers with a Petition that was submitted by Mele ‘Amanaki Samate, a member of a petition committee, tabled into Parliament by ‘Eua People’s Representative Tevita Lavemaau. When it was read in the House on 13 June, the Petition called for the House to defer its debate on the 2018-19 National Budget, awaiting an urgent audit of sections of the 2015-16, 2016-17 and the 2017-18 budget allocations of seven Cabinet Ministers: Minister of Foreign Affairs (former Minister of Education and Internal Affairs) PM Hon ‘Akilisi Pohiva; Minister for Infrastructure and Tourism Semisi Sika, Minister of Finance Pohiva Tu‘i‘onetoa, Minister for Education and Training Penisimani Fifita, Minister for Police, Revenue and Customs Mateni Tapueluelu, Minister for Justice Vuna Fa‘otusia, Minister for Labour and Commerce Tu‘i Uata. More specifically the Ministries with sections of their budget allocations to be audited were: the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry for Internal Affairs and the Ministry for Infrastructure and Tourism. The House agreed for the Speaker to request the Auditor General to include auditing of the budget allocation of the three ministries in his 2018-2019 working schedule. The House also agreed for the Ministers whose ministries were mentioned in the Petition to submit their responses to the allocations that were spelled out in the petition. However, instead of deferring its debating of the 2018-19 National Budget the House debated and passed it before midnight on 20 June, then went on a long break until October. Since parliament resumed its 2018 session last month there has been a constant struggle over what should be read first in the House: the response from the Auditor General for the request from the House for a report on the budget allocations of the seven ministries from 2015 to 2018; or a response from the Prime Minister and six Cabinet Ministers to claims that were focusing on them in the petition. In the end the report from the Auditor General was read first (last week), while the responses from the Prime Minister and six Cabinet Ministers were being scrutinized by the Standing Committee on Privileges. Some of the documents submitted by the PM and Cabinet Ministers were in English and they had to be translated to Tongan. There was a problem when the initial response from the PM and his Cabinet Ministers were all in one, and then the House decided to break it up and required each Minister to submit his own response. So far, only three Ministerial reports have been submitted and read, a report of the PM, the Minister of Education and the Minister of Justice. The 2017-18 Parliament has not yet concluded, what we have come to now, is that the Tongan Constitution states that is lawful for the members of the Legislative Assembly to impeach any Privy Councillor, Minister, Governor or Judge for breach of the laws or maladministration - but somebody has to make a decision to do that, and the divided House has pushed that responsibility onto the Speaker. To resolve the issue of impartiality the Speaker can make the decision to impeach or to not impeach, based on the case presented in the Petition and supported by the Auditor's Report. Or then again, the House might decide to exercise the need for impartiality, which has been raised by government. Clearly, this could only be achieved by excluding the seven accused cabinet ministers from the vote, so that the rest of the members can vote and decide on whether or not to proceed with the impeachment. See also: October 30, 2018 PM and six Ministers dodging impeachment [1] Petition for the Impeachment of PM and six ministers [2]Lord Fakafanua [3]Parliament [4]