Fix solicitors’ contracts

By HELEN TARAWA
THE Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the Union Bank of Switzerland loan deal has directed all government agencies to have the contracts for overseas solicitors processed and approved by the National Executive Council (NEC).
Chairman Sir Salamo Injia directed his secretariat to work with NEC secretary Grace So-on, National Procurement Commission (NPC) chief executive officer Simon Bole and State Solicitor Daniel Rolpagarea to give an update on the progress of the contracts by Monday.
So-on, Bole and Rolpagarea were directed to give an update on the steps they had taken to formalise the contract.
Bole was supposed to liaise with Rolpagarea to ensure that the solicitors’ contracts were prepared and executed by the head of state by April 28.
A representative from the contracting parties’ solicitors from Australia was at the hearing on Thursday and Friday.
Under the provisions of NPC, an award of contract over K10 million is approved by the NEC and the contract is signed by the head of state and the solicitors from Minter Ellison Lawyers.
Deputy State Solicitor Lillian Vevara told the inquiry that they met last week with Minter Ellison solicitors and were working on finalising the terms of reference and the draft into a state contract agreement.
“It is expected to be finalised with the issuing of the legal clearance to go before NEC,” she said.
“We are hoping to target the Wednesday sitting for NEC.
“The COI will have to put together a NEC paper with clearance documents for the sitting and once it’s approved it will be executed by the governor-general.
“We will need the authority to pre-commit (APC) from Department of Finance, it’s a legal requirement under the Public Finance Management Act and the NPC Act before the State Solicitor can issue a legal clearance,” Vevara said.
Sir Salamo said he was compelled to conduct the public inquiry to ascertain what was going on between different agencies.
“I’m concerned about the delay, time is running out and money is running (out) too and we don’t want the government to pay for the inefficiencies.
“Get your act together, prepare the necessary documents and ensure the APC is received and put a submission before NEC on Wednesday and get a decision out on the contract,” he said.
Sir Salamo said once the commission was advised of the decision of NEC then the solicitors would be brought back to sign the contract.
“Without the contract, the solicitors will not be engaged.
“The work of the solicitors is critical because the commission has decided to engage an Australian counsel to assist the inquiry and the involvement of solicitors is critical to the performance of duty of counsel assistance,” Sir Salamo said.