Miners accused of bribing former Prime Minister

The beauty of the 'Avatai o Mugava (West Rennell Coastline)

The former Prime Minister of Solomon Islands and former Minister of Energy, Mines and Minerals with top bureaucrats are accused of receiving briberies to grant prospect and mining licences to two Asian companies, including the one now the sole owner of West Rennell mining tenement.

Asia Pacific Investment Development (APID) has been accused in the local media and various social media forums of bribing former Prime Minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo, of directing the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Minerals to grant the permits to APID, despite the abnormality of the process and the existence of fake document in the core applications of APID and a rival company, Bingtang.

The alleged fake-document by both companies includes land-maps, doctoring and plagiarising prospect mining results previously carried out by a Japanese company on Rennell Island in 1970s, producing lists of landowning groups, which had never signed up their land, and producing reports of public meetings in West Rennell, which were non-existence.

Despite the abnormality of the process and documentations, the former Prime Minister allegedly directed the former Minister, Permanent Secretary, Director and Board of Mines, to proceed with granting the licences (prospect and mining).

According to former Provincial Secretary of Rennell and Bellona Province, Willie Peseika, the above allegations had led to his decision to sue the government for corrupting the process.

But Peseika defended the action of his former boss and premier, Lence Tango, of similar allegations of using a rival Asian mining company, Bingtang, to pay $4 million of their extravagance life-style in one of the country’s five-star hotels, Heritage Park, in mid-2014.

After almost a year following the controversy, the former sacked provincial secretary, Willie Peseika, who is also using the alias Agiki P Baiabe in the social media forum, Rennell and Bellona Province, said there was nothing wrong about the unofficial transaction.

The multi-million-dollar hotel bill led to the down-fall of Premier Tango, following the resignation of his former Deputy, Puangongo Tepuke, with two other members of his executive.

Following the resignation of the members, Premier Tango, refused to resign. He then allegedly using Bingtang to secretly offered $250,000.00 each to the former executive members.

But when Tango’s attempted bribery failed, he allegedly requested the former Prime Minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo, who was also a close friend of Tango, to abolish the executive power of Rennell and Bellona Province. Tango’s move was intended to prevent the new group from taking over power.

Lilo, who had allegedly received about one-million dollars SID) payment from the Asian investors, obligated and suspended the provincial government of Rennell and Bellona and handed over the executive power to the Minister of Provincial government.

But in a twist of fate, the government also terminated the employment of former Provincial Secretary, Peseika, for acting outside of his administrative role by taking a court case against the government in the High Court.

Peseika now claimed that the court case was to protect his land and people of West Rennell from government corrupt practices in granting APID’s prospect and mining licences over his preferred company, Bingtang.

The unofficial $4m hotel bill was initially revealed by the local media based on an investigation into the unprecedented accommodation by former premier Tango and his secretary in the hotel for almost five months. APID was and still accommodating a few selected landowners and supporters in hotels and motels in Honiara until today.

The former secretary revealed that the $4m hotel bill had also included funds that he had used to help over 7,000 people of Rennell and Bellona Province, who were regular visitors of the hotel.

But Peseika’s boastful revelation about the number of people, whom he had claimed to assist during that time, defied the population statistics of Rennell and Bellona Islands, which is 4, 000 in both Honiara and the two islands – according to the 2006 census estimate.

The Asians, who were financing the former premier and his sacked secretary were Indonesian Directors of Bingtang, which was applying for prospect and mining licences from the central government and province executive to carryout mining for bauxite mineral in West Rennell Island.

Back then, the former Premier and his hand-pick-political appointed secretary, Peseika, were not only accommodated at the hotel, but they were also working as middlemen of Bingtang, in their attempt to secure prospect and mining licences, and access permit to Rennell Island.

Last week, Peseika admitted that during that time, he sued the Solomon Islands government for corruptly processing and accepting APID’s prospect and mining application, which led to its sole ownership of the mining tenement in West Rennell.

He claimed that he had paid $5,000.00 for the initial fee of the court-case, but later said $20,000.00, which is highly suspicious considering Peseika’s current earning power as an ordinary secondary school teacher, following his sacking by the government mid-last year.

When Peseika was pressed to explain how an ordinary teacher could afford to take the Solomon Islands government to court considering his meagre wage, he abused those who had questioned his version of events, while boasting that he had money to pursue the case.

Peseika claimed that the former premier had the right to get money from Bingtang, on the basis that he is one of the land owners of the tenement, which Bingtang had applied to carry out prospect mining on Rennell Island.

The former Premier and his secretary were openly supporting the application of Bingtang and facilitating the administrative paper work, despite the apparent forgery of the maps and document that the company had used to be the basis of its application.

Peseika did not deny his role and involvement of the former premier in pushing for Bingtang to get a prospect licence, but furious that members of the forum were not questing the activities of APID.

But when he was pressed to explain his role over the hotel bill controversy, he admitted his involvement in negotiating and promoting Bingtang’s promises to give landowners of West Rennell over $20m in royalty payment, while dismissing the $4m hotel bill as none issue.

He claimed that the only problem with the whole mining issue was the corruption of the national government, which prompted him to sue the government for granting APID prospect and mining licences. APID is partly owned by one of Bingtang’s directors.

Peseika also blamed the current mess (social, environmental, political and economic) in West Rennell on past successive executive governments of the province and the government of former Prime Minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo.

According to APID’s sole ownership right over the tenement in West Rennell, landowners have no legal right to carry out any logging, mining or commercial activities in their land.

The landownership in Rennell Island is 99 percent customary owned. Tribes are the principal owners of the land and individuals of the various tribes utilize the land as secondary users.

Early this month, the local media reported that APID had claimed to acquire the mining tenement in West Rennell after meeting the legal requirements set by the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Minerals. Since early this year APID began a clear-felling logging operation on the current tenement.

Provincial Premier, Collin Singamoana Tesu’atai, in May this year revealed that his executive was only informed of APID logging operation following aerial view from the travelling public.

APID claimed to have acquired the tenement by producing land maps and publically displaying notices in villages as required by the Mines Act. It followed by a three-month of allowing public perusal of documentation through the courts, giving landowners an opportunity to challenge the land acquisition process and legality.

But APID’s claim, like Bingtang, has been disputed by landowners and villagers of West Rennell, who had accused both companies of producing fake document and deliberately failing to hold community meetings and concealing the paper-work until the 3-month was lapsed before coming out in the media to inform the people about their claims.

APID’s media release, published by the local media late in July this year, claimed that the land acquisition process and the legal requirements were met without any legal challenge, giving the company the sole legal right over the mining tenement.

According to the Mines Act of the Solomon Islands government, the only way that the landowners and provincial executive of Rennell and Bellona Province could take is to challenge APID’s sole ownership of West Rennell mining tenement in a court of law.

As of now, only the newly elected provincial government of Rennell and Bellona, led by Premier Singamoana Tesu’atai, has promised to take-up a court case against APID. The landowners of West Rennell Island are enable to mount a court case against APID because of the cost of engaging in a protracted legal process, which the landowners have no money to finance.

Since the election of the current national government into office in December 2014, Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare immediately cancelled the prospect permit and mining licences of Bingtang.

Sogavare also sacked the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Mineral in May this year over allegations of corruption, while establishing an ongoing investigation into allegations of corruption by the directors of Bingtang, APID and some senior bureaucrats.

Peseika and Tango, were allegedly backing Bingtang. It was alleged that Bingtang obtained its prospect and mining licences in less than four months. The process of obtaining a full mining licence should have taken three (3) years minimum or seven (7) years maximum for a company to meet.

Since late last year, Bingtang and APID have been carrying out mining operations in West Rennell. Despite the government termination of Bingtang’s operational licence early this year, the company defied the order and decided to export an undisclosed amount of bauxite from Rennell Island.

But as the shipment arrived on Noro Port, Western Province, for Customs clearance, the government banned the shipment from leaving port. At the time of writing, Bingtang has appealed the government decision to the High Court, which is still pending for a ruling.

As of now, over ten new Asian mining companies, mostly from Indonesia, are applying for prospect mining licences to Rennell Island and their applications are pending before the Board of Mines.

Most of these companies are supported by the same individuals from Rennell Island.