The Accountability and Transparency Twin

Financial Accountability
Minister of Finance and Treasury, Gordon Darcy Lilo has issued a directive for government finances to be controlled.

Mr Darcy says Government had taken this initiative to ensure public funds are spend on what they were intended for. He says the directives reminds accounting officers to comply with the financial regulations and instructions. Mr Darcy says requisitions for payments must be raised through respective accounting officers 14 days before the Treasury Department can issue payment. He says this requirement both controls government finances and reduces the time taken by the Treasury department to screen payments.

Transparency Conference
Prominent Solomon Islander and Speaker of the National Parliament, Sir Peter Kenilorea, says the battle against corruption is an uphill challenge in the Pacific region, particularly in Solomon islands.

Sir Peter said this yesterday when he opened the Transparency International Regional Conference in Honiara. He told the conference that the full extend of corruption in the country is yet to be fully realized. Sir Peter said in most cases, corruption cases have become embedded in the country's way of life. He said corruption is eating away at the fabric of life and something must be done urgently to address this growing threat.

MyBlog says
Is it a coincidence that the Finance Minister's announcement of tightening up control of government finances comes in at the right time the Transparency International Regional Conference is being held in Honiara?

It could mean many things. It could just be either a window dressing on the part of the government that it's addressing one of the weaknesses
of the accountability system. Or it would be a serious and the right move to get things on the track according to procedures. Whatever views there are, accountability and transparency in any field form a basic foundation to good governance in any system.

Sir Peter also highlighted at the Transparency Conference the need for more public awareness and understanding of corruption and good governance at the village level. While MyBlog agrees with Sir Peter, it narrows this need to the common denominator, the family unit, which is the basic building block of the community or society. This is where NGOs including the churches can assist in advancing accountability and transparency.

Climate Change
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 11th meeting of the Least Developed Countries, LDCs has got underway in Honiara.

The meeting is to train those working on implementation to implement their National Adaptation Programme of Action, NAPA. The NAPA is a framework designed to assist LDC's which are vulnerable to the effects of climate change and how they can adapt to this phenomena.

MyBlog says
Again the workshop could not have been timely.

Climate change did show it presence. Parts of Solomon Islands in the last few days experienced a low depression, causing heavy rain, strong winds and rough seas especially in the south of the country. Rennell-Bellona, Temotu Provinces were close to the path of that depression. May be it's a timely reminder for government authorities and others to be prepared and alert at all time because natural disasters are sometimes unpredictable. Thus the need for a National Adaptation Programme of Action on Climate Change to be in place.

Sea-level rise due to the effects of climate change poses greater threat to low laying atolls in the pacific including Solomon Islands.This is something that the government is yet to put any concrete focus on, although the low-laying islands and coastal lowlands of some main islands are slowly but surely been submerged.

The events are a reminder to us all.

Catch up with you in the next posting.