From the House by Pesi Fonua

The Tongan parliament yesterday approved the handing over of the controversial NDC Report to a second "independent" parliamentary select committee to deal with it.

The decision came amid a lot of screaming over what kind of committee would be formed to deal with the report, and what the committee was going to do with it.

After months of parliamentary wrangling, the NDC Report could be artistically portrayed as some kind of twisted and bended structure reflecting, perhaps, a true image of our parliament and our Cabinet at the moment.

In the first place, it was the Cabinet who introduced a resolution motion into the House for the establishment of the first independent committee – not to investigate but to gather information on how the $TOP119 million loan from the Exim Bank of China was spent on the reconstruction of Nuku'alofa.

As the first independent committee evolved, it nearly became a Royal Commission, but when it eventually became a Parliamentary Select Committee, it was chaired by 'Akilisi Pohiva and composed of Sitiveni Halapua, Lord Lasike, Lord Tu'i'afitu, the Auditor General Pohiva Tui'onetoa, and a legal advisor Posesi Bloomfield.

The report of the committee was presented to parliament at the end of August, and during the whole of September the House has been debating the report.

Most interestingly, it was the government that wanted the report, but during the debate and the reading of the report in the House, it became clear that the government did not like the report. The Cabinet Ministers claimed that it was incomplete, wrong, and that so far it had been a huge and utter waste of time and money.

Meanwhile, 'Akilisi Pohiva and Sitiveni Halapua who were presenting the report argued that their work was guided by the Terms of Reference that were given to them by the House. They argued that some of the wrong doings they claimed to have identified should be investigated and taken to court.

Parliamentary privilege

The distribution of the NDC Report by the committee world-wide and the live broadcasting of the debate in the House has also presented another complication for the House, because although the members of parliament are sheltered from prosecution by their parliamentary privilege of immunity, there have been objections to the fact that they have pointed fingers at people, claiming that they have committed crimes, and that those people cannot defend their reputations with actions for defamation.

So during the past few days the House has been arguing over the point that the report claimed that millions of dollars were deposited overseas and a few more were supposed to have been spent here in Tonga, but it had not been accounted for.

The Minister of Finance, Hon Lisiate 'Akolo, the authority that authorized the paying out of money from Exim Bank of China to the main contractor, CCECC, stood firm in his claim that the report was wrong and incomplete.

Deadlock

It appeared that the only way out of this deadlock was for the report to be given to the government who had demand the report in the first place, but the Minister of Justice, Hon. Clive Edwards said that the government could not do anything with the report. He proposed for the House to accept and recognize the report.

Clive caused a screaming match yesterday when he criticized one of the motions that were presented to the Whole House Committee to vote on. The motion was put forward by 'Akilisi for the report to be given to the Finance Committee of the House to deal with. Clive pointed out that both Sitiveni and 'Akilisi were members of the Finance Committee, and it was one committee that had been using a big portion of the budget of the House.

The Chairman finally got the House into order, and called for votes on the two motions before the Whole House committee.

He called for vote on another motion by the Acting Prime Minister, Hon. Samiu Vaipulu for the formation of another Independent Committee to be selected from the House's Standing Committees on Law and Finance, to be chaired by 'Aisake Eke. It was carried 8-0.

(In this context an independent committee was interpreted to mean one without 'Akilisi Pohiva and Sitiveni Halapua. Sitiveni responded to this view considering that the House was clearly divided over the issue.)

Alternatively, the second motion by 'Akilisi Pohiva was for the report to be given to the Standing Committee of the House on Finance. It was carried 7-0.

The Chairman declared that the Hon. Samiu Vaipulu's motion for an independent committee to be selected from the Law and Finance Committees had won.