Prime Minister Houenipwela sets the record straight

Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela has described as “erroneous” the reported costs incurred by his recent trip to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, APEC Summit in Papua New Guinea early this month.

Chair of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee and Member of Parliament for East Honiara, Douglas Ete told Parliament that the trip has incurred a total of 2.7-million dollars.

Mr. Ete made the comments in his debate on the recently passed 2018 Supplementary Appropriation Number Two Bill 2018 this week.

But Prime Minister Houenipwela told a media conference this afternoon the exact amount incurred was actually more than four hundred thousand dollars.

“It was reported that the trip costs 2.7 million dollars which is not the case. The actual cost of the trip was 471-thousand dollars.

“But the other point I made the statement this morning was that I ask the media to be responsible in making reports so what I expected was that someone should have called my office and ask about this amount. I think it’s expected that before you make any reports, members of the media do have that responsibility”.

The Prime Minister added, he will be producing to Parliament a further statement on all overseas trips he took since being elected as Prime Minister in November last year.

“The other point in terms of that statement that I made is that I will be making a further statement or producing a further statement to the Parliament.

“This is in regards to all the trips that I have undertaken since I became Prime Minister in November last year.

“I think this is very important for Parliament to know what the Prime Minister was doing and the cost of those trips to the tax payers in Solomon Islands and what the benefits are that are crude out of those trips”.

By: Rickson Bau