The Solomon Islands government has rejected allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the distribution of tens of millions of dollars from its economic stimulus package.
Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Koroi Hawkins
Earlier this month Transparency Solomon Islands, or TSI, called for an audit of the funds claiming a leaked list of recipients included public officials and people without legitimate businesses or projects.
But the Solomon Star newspaper reported the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance calling the allegations defamatory and misleading.
McKinnie Dentana said public officers do not qualify for the economic stimulus package and the government staff on the list referred to by TSI were not recipients.
Dentana said these officers were entrusted with facilitating payments for youths hired on a casual basis to monitor price control regulation in the country.
"As a holder of imprest, these public officers have a responsibility to fully retire the imprest received as any outstanding amount not accounted for will be deducted from their salary," he said.
The permanent secretary also confirmed that almost all the officers had already retired the money, while the others would do so after they paid the youths.
"I can also confirm that some of the officers have returned the outstanding money that was not utilised, to Treasury as a process of Imprest retirement," Dentana said.
The Permanent Secretary also confirmed that the engagement of youths would continue until December 2020.
"Had the TSI contacted my office, they should not be publishing the articles and the names of individuals receiving Imprest as none of the public officers in the list receives ESP project payment as claimed by TSI".
"As a transparency organisation, I trust TSI can do better than this rather than inciting public distrust with information that is misleading, for public consumption," he added.