FISHERIES MINISTER ASKED ABOUT BECHE-DE-MER CASE

Fisheries Minister Alfred Ghiro says efforts to prosecute the people who stole the beche-de-mer consignment from the Fisheries Ministry compound last year is on-going.

According to the Fisheries Minister, the beche-de-mer consignment weighed one-thousand five-hundred and ninety-eight kilograms.

He told Parliament today, the total value of the stolen consignment would not be more than 10-million Solomon dollars.

The consignment was stolen from the Ministry’s compound in October last year by some men believed to be sent by certain Members of Parliament.

In response to questions if the police investigation is delayed because Members of Parliament are involved, Minister Ghiro said he has not seen a police report on the matter to confirm if a Member of Parliament is involved or not.

The Fisheries Minister however confirmed that the Ministry knows the identities of the people who stole the consignment.

He also said the stolen consignment has not left the country.

“According to Fisheries Ministry it never left the country. If it does then we’ll know, unless they did it through an avenue we’re not aware of, but I am not sure whether it still in the country or not, but according to the Ministry we know that it hasn’t left the country.”

Meanwhile, Police Minister Chris Laore could not give an update to Parliament on police investigations into the stolen beche-de-mer consignment, saying he doesn’t know anything.

“Currently, I don’t know about how far the investigations have gone so I won’t be able to give answers to that, thank you.”