PRESS STATEMENT
WOMEN SUFFER MORE BECAUSE OF CORRUPTION PRACTICES IN THE COUNTRY
Corruption is a word derived from the Latin word “Corruptus” which means “corrupted” and, in legal terms is supposed to be an abuse of a trusted position in any one holding or exercising powers within the branches of an Executive, Legislative and Judicial authorities of Solomon Islands or in the political system of a government or other organizations with the intention of obtaining material benefit which he or she is not justified to be entitled for legally.
On Monday this week, Solomon Islands commemorate the International Day on Anti-Corruption marking it with a number of events both in Honiara and in Auki, to alert people on the importance of prevention measures that citizens need to take in order to reduce corruption practices happening in the country.
The Solomon Islands National Council of Women on behalf of the women in the country is concern that many of the agreements within the logging and mining companies operating in the country have not respected women as custodians of their resources and that it is almost now a practice that extra payments as huge commissions made out of some of government contracts are causing huge and unnecessary costs to the Public Tax Payers.
The National Council of Women warned that even court decisions are been unfairly delivered when women and young girls are been victimized through violence of harassments, sexual abuse and assaults at times and therefore, WOMEN SUFFER MORE BECAUSE OF CORRUPTION PRACTICES IN THE COUNTRY.
The Solomon Islands National Council is also concerned and noted that “corruption” is increasingly developing also in ecclesiastical structures in the country and urge that the Churches must be proactive in addressing the issues of suppression of human interest rather than upholding Christian principles for all.
Among the deformities of our democratic system in our happy isles Solomon Islands, political corruption is one of the most serious one, because it betrays the majority of citizens in the past through the use of the Constituency Development Fund for Voters as an example, at the same time claiming to uphold the moral principles and norms of social justice as accorded in our Solomon Islands National Constitution. The National Council of Women is aware of the fact that Solomon Islands as a State in many ways have compromised the correct functioning of its offices and therefore, have a negative influence on the relationship between those who govern and the governed, an example of which is the political switch to China. The switch has not been sealed as yet, though the government has announced its diplomatic relations with China, but the fact of the matter is that there has been no formal accreditation as yet with the Head of the State in the country.
The majority of our local citizens most of whom are women are also suffering from the impact of corruption on businesses in the country. No women has been given the opportunity to run bigger businesses in the country, because their small businesses are not been protected in an environment that is prone to corruption. In the case of Solomon Islands, smaller businesses are taxed more than the bigger business of foreigners, because they are been exempted to avoid paying taxes to the country, hence Solomon Islands having to lose a lot of money from its revenue expenditure on an annual basis.
The Solomon Islands National Council of Women is also concerned about our Children in the country been corrupted of their talents and skills. MPs Scholarships indirectly is a form of corruption in education because it has a negative impact on our economic growth through the allocation of talents, since gifted and prospective students are driven out due to the influence of this greedy form of scholarship been awarded to relatives and what one can term as the “big man’s” choice. This could lead to public spending which has a strong impact on education and health as has been the situation experienced in the country.
The Solomon Islands National Council of Women however, congratulates the Government for finally appointing Members to the Anti-Corruption Commission, and hopes that the Commission will best complement the role of other Government Institutions such as the Leadership Commission, Ombudsman and the Law Reform Commission addressing issues relating to our Laws, complains about the conduct of Officers and the general public to addressing Anti-Corruption in the country at large.
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For more information
Contact the Solomon Islands National Council of Women
P.O. Box 1830
Honiara.
