WEDNESDAY 13 th APRIL 2011 The Speaker, Sir Allan Kemakeza took the chair at 9.55am. Prayers. ATTENDANCE At prayers, all were present with the exception of the Minister for Finance & Treasury; Minister for Lands & Survey and the members for Temotu Pele, West Kwara’ae, Aoke/Langalanga. PRESENTATION OF PAPERS AND OF REPORTS • Report on the Motion to amend the Standing Orders of the National Parliament of the Solomon Islands to Establish Three Standing Select Committees and Their Respective Functions (National Parliament Paper No. 13 of 2011) • Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development Annual Report 2010” (National Parliament Paper No.14 of 2011) • Performance Assessment Framework (PAF) 2009 (National Parliament Paper No. 15 of 2011) • Solomon Islands Standardised Tests of Achievement (SISTA) 2 – A report on the monitoring of literacy and numeracy achievements at the end of Year 6 in 2010 (National Parliament Paper No. 16 of 2011) • Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology Strategic and Corporate Plan 2011 – 2014 (National Parliament Paper No. 17 of 2011) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Questions No. 9 & 10 deferred Police: progress of police houses 13. Mr. TAUSINGA (MP West New Georgia/Vona Vona ): to the Minister for Police, National Security and Correctional Services: Can the Minister update the House on the progress of the Police Housing Scheme, in particular:- (a) How many houses have been built so far, (b) Which ranking officers would be entitled to be housed, and (c) Is it going in accordance with approved funding? Hon. TORA (Minister for Police, National Security & Correctional Services ): I would like to thank those who have shown interest and have at some stage assisted in one way or the other in enabling the Police Housing project to eventuate. I would like to inform this honourable House and for the sake of the questioner, the MP for Vona Vona/New Georgia that the Solomon Islands Government funded police houses, a total of 12 houses and have been built since 2009. In terms of the New Zealand and Australia Federal Police funded police houses, a total of 84 houses have been built so far since October 2010. Therefore, a total of 96 houses have been built as of year 2009 to date. Superintendent Also for the interest of this honourable House, from 2010 to this year 2011, the following houses have been completed and officially commissioned. They are four houses in Gizo, five houses for the Marau Police station, two houses in Buala and one house is about 80 percent complete, probably in July this year. For the New Zealand and Australian Federal funded police houses a total of 84 houses have been built so far and are as follows: Rove 4, Henderson 16, Tetere 11, Lata 17, Noro 12, Munda 6 and Gizo 18. All of the houses mentioned above have been under construction and a good number of houses have been completed. For the information of this honourable House, four houses at Rove have been fully completed and officially opened. The next sets of houses to be fully completed and ready to be officially opened are 17 houses for Lata and probably this will be in the first week of May. For the Solomon Islands Government funded police houses, as you are aware, in the Development Budget of 2011 we have been allocated a sum of $13.3million. This amount is to assist the Ministry facilitate the following projects and at least build 17 houses in the following locations: 4 Police houses to be built at Naha, which will cost $2million, 3 Police houses at Gizo at a cost of $2million, 1 Police house at Buala for $800,000, 4 houses for correctional services at Naha, which will cost about $2million, 2 houses at Tulagi, which will cost $1million, 2 houses at Seghe for $1million, and also houses in Auki and Marau. Phase 2 which runs from June 2011 to June 2012, the Australian Federal Police will be funding 50 more houses and these houses will be built in these locations: • Malaita Province – 26 houses, of which 20 will be built in Auki, 3 will be built in Atoifi, and another 3 in other stations. • Makira & Ulawa Province – Kira Kira Police station will have 14 houses. These will replace the current very old houses. • Choiseul Province – 10 houses will be built at the new proposed site station in Taro. The answer to part (b), as you would have noted these newly built houses are three bedroom houses and are of executive standards. Having said this, the allocation of officers to these houses really depends on the location of these houses and all police officers are entitled to a house. The reason why we have an allocation system in place is because we because we do not have enough houses to accommodate all police officers. Basically, the police housing committee uses a simple system to allocate officers to available houses. For example, in Honiara, the Committee will review the current allocation and the availability of the newly built houses. If an Inspector, for instance, occupies a two bedroom house which is for a Police Constable, that Inspector will be reallocated a new house and a Police Constable will then be allocated the two bedroom house. For houses in the provinces, allocation of houses is based entirely on Provincial Police Commanders’ recommendations. In fact in the provinces, a lot more officers with ranks below the inspectorate level are able to occupy one of these newly built houses compared to officers in Honiara. To answer the question, all officers are entitled to a house. I only hope that one day we are able to build enough houses for every officer. The process of allocation of officers to these houses is Provincial Commanders do assessment of their housing needs and submit it to the Police Housing Committee. Recommendations from the Housing Committee are then approved by the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Executive. Factors that the Housing Committee also takes into account apart from the rank factor includes:- (a) Donors, Australia and New Zealand, request that families currently living in the single quarters at the rear of Rove will be considered as part of the process. The system is structured in a way that the houses are systematically allocated to officers. The process is there to allocate houses to police officers. Mr SOGAVARE (MP East Choiseul ): I want to take the opportunity to thank the New Zealand and Australian governments for actively involving in this program of building police houses. My supplementary question is, in terms of the Ministry’s forward plan, how many houses altogether is the Ministry thinking of building for police officers of this program, because of the funding involved whether the commitment of New Zealand and the Australian government will still continue to be committed to any long term plan to build more houses for the Police? Hon. Tora: As I have alluded to in my contribution to the debate of the 2011 Appropriation Bill 2011, this is an ongoing project, for instance, New Zealand has funded about 34 houses, which appears in the development budget. The Australian Federal Police funded houses according to the announcement it made in 2009 when it allocated AUD$20million over a four-year period. This means it is going to build 200 houses and New Zealand will build 34. But for Solomon Islands Government funding of houses will continue until all police officers are housed because housing is very important. Mr Sogavare: I thank the Minister for his response. One of the weaknesses in terms of aid funded projects is maintenance of the buildings. What is the Government’s plan being put in place to ensure all infrastructures are maintained in the long run? Hon. Tora: On the question of maintenance, Australia and New Zealand will only fund construction of new houses. This Government will therefore look at whether Australia can help to meet maintenance costs in say 15 to 20 years time or whether it will be entirely on the government to meet the maintenance cost. In regards to SIG funded houses, it is the Government’s responsibility to maintain the houses when the need arises. Hon. SIKUA (Leader of Opposition ): Is there any way whereby the Ministry can approach our two good donors to extend their assistance beyond the 200 houses funded by Australia and the 34 houses funded by New Zealand to go onto phase 2 or something like that? Hon. Tora: As I have said earlier, it depends on the Government through my Ministry to talk again with the two donor partners to help us build more houses for our police officers. Also, if you may allow me to respond again to part of the question raised by the Honourable Member for East Choiseul, yes, we are jointly working on an infrastructure development plan that will show the allocation of houses in the next 2-3 years time. In addition to that, the development plan will also be done for maintenance of the houses that are currently being built. Mr TOZAKA (MP North Vella Lavella ): Supplementary question to the Minister. Information has it that there are police officers who have already left the service that are still occupying police quarters because they have unfinished business with the Ministry. Can you confirm this, what action has been done on the matter or how are you addressing this? Hon Tora: This is a long standing issue not only with the police but also the public service. But in the case of the police, I have assigned the housing committee to audit all the houses, to carry out auditing to see whether officers that have already left the service through resignation or retirement are still occupying police quarters.