30 Nov 2005

Solomons PM says he has done nothing wrong regarding compensation money

8:35 pm on 30 November 2005

The Solomon Island prime minister says he has done nothing wrong in receiving compensation of nearly 121-thousand US dollars for losses incurred during the ethnic tension.

Sir Allan Kemakeza made the comment after an audit report alleges that millions of dollars are missing from a loan by Taiwan's Exim bank for compensation payments.

Sir Allan was the Minister of National Unity and Reconciliation at the time of the disbursement of some 20 million US dollars.

The report, which has now been tabled in parliament, says millions of dollars are missing and many of the claims were excessive or false.

Sir Allan says he was not given enough compensation for the loss of his resort on Savo.

"The assessors physically visited some of these areas because Savo is clear that the officers visited and they came up with a claim of 1.8 million dollars, which I have a copy that I still keep for my reference, and they only paid my family for 800 something dollars."

Sir Allan says he would welcome a police investigation into the report.

Meanwhile Taiwan says it is to look into the report.

The first secretary of aid programmes at Taiwan's embassy in Honiara, Ken Lai, says they know very little about the auditor general's report.

Mr Lai says they will be investigating.

We haven't got the details of the report and we don't know whether the report is true or not. So, we are still waiting for the truth to be found out and we will look into it.

The report, handed to the former Finance Minister last year, recommended the matter be referred to the police but this was not done so the auditor general tabled it in parliament last week.