Task Force team to probe vessels’ ownership

VESSELS bought with public funds should be given to the respective provincial governments, Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion said.
Dion, who is also Minister for Inter-Government Relations and Border Development Authority, was responding to questions raised by West New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel and Milne Bay Governor Titus Philemon.
The two governors were concerned over news that mv Kandrian and mv Milne Bay were given to a company.
They wanted the vessels to be given back to the provincial governments to serve the needs of the people, particularly the island communities in their provinces.
They believed the vessels were in wrong hands and not serving the purpose they were bought for.
They asked what the government was doing to intervene and give the vessels back to the people as they had been purchased with public funds.
Dion said the vessels were subject to investigations by the Task Force Sweep and he could not discuss it as it would seem to be pre-empting the investigations.
He said the allocation of funds to buy the vessels did not come from the BDA but through the national planning department and his department did not have the necessary information.
He assured the governors that if the vessels were bought with public funds, the state would retrieve them and give them to the provincial governments.
“We will look into it but let the investigations continue and if the vessels were purchased using state funds, then why not give it back to the provinces,” he said.
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