Political

Cover Stories

Apia’S

Crunch

By Alan Ah Mu

Last month the government used its big majority in Parliament to approve a commission of inquiry’s report that cleared seven Cabinet minis ters of corruption.

Rather than end the matter, the move has fuelled a controversy likely to continue into the new year.

Former chief auditor Tom Overhoff called the findings a “whitewash”. The corruption allegations, which also impli cated government officials, came from chief auditor Sua Rimoni Ah Chong in his annual report to parliament. The nor mal procedure, said Overhoff, is for such a report to be referred to the public accounts committee for recommenda tions to parliament. Instead it was exam ined by a commission consisting of “non-parliamentarians chosen by the very body that is under fire in the audit report: Cabinet”.

A commission of inquiry, Prime Minister Tofilau EtiAlesana had decided, would give those accused the chance to give their side of the story in the man ner of a trial in court - and as he point ed out later, Tuiatua Tupua Tamasese, leader of the main opposition, the Samoa National Development Party, had agreed to one.

True, and people criticised Tuiatua for it, but as he said, the government of the ruling Human Rights Protection Party wanted a commission of inquiry and had the numbers in parliament to make one inevitable.

What he pressed for instead - and failed - was for the commission mem bers to be recruited from overseas led by someone like former New Zealand governor-general Sir David Beattie, who had done a similar job in Fiji.

That would reflect badly on quali fied Samoans who the country had sent overseas for education, Tofilau said, ignoring Tuiatua’s argument that “an Australian refereeing a rugby game between Tonga and Samoa does not reflect on the integrity and capacity of Samoan referees or the Samoan people”.

“The intention is to place the issue of impartiality beyond dispute,” he said.

Overhoff surfaced, saying the com mission lacked independence and impartiality in an open letter to chair man Maiava lulai Toma to express “my feeling of utter disgust about your report” which gives “all sorts of excus es” for what was alleged in the audit report.

In parliament, the PM turned on Sua, focusing on the commission’s most crit ical conclusions that the auditor had gone beyond his “jurisdiction and legiti mate sphere of concern”, cited politi cians “particularly ministers on flimsi ly composed allegations or suggestions of wrongdoing” and had “disregarded mechanisms laid down by law to deter mine the correctness or legality of cer tain actions by government officials and has improperly taken onto himself the function of declaring such actions as wrong or unlawful.”

However, Overhoff said, when gov

eminent money is lost, by wrongdoing as alleged by Sua,“it is the auditor’s func tion to report that”.

Another commission finding Tofilau latched on to was Sua’s hiring of private sector auditors and spending WS$ 18,000, a sum that required Cabinet approval.

Sua said legally he could hire audi tors if it was necessary and was “disap pointed” the PM had lost his “perspec tive”.

Tofilau even said Sua was working withTuiatua during his attack which at times was so strong the rumour was that government would do all it could to fire the chief auditor.

But if the PM chose to dwell on Sua’s alleged faults his opponents were bound to seize onto those commission conclusions that support Sua qualified though they may be namely that: “We confirm, in the main, the irregu larities outlined by the ... chief auditor but we do not agree with all of the dimensions of these events portrayed in the report..”

Also, “We confirm the disturbing trends of dishonesty and unprofessional conduct uncovered by the chief auditor in some departments and agencies of government”, though it doesn’t mean there’s a “general state of degeneracy in public administration as could perhaps be inferred from numerous allusions to such a state in the report”.

Overhoff says differently. There has been a “marked degeneration of govern ment and public service accountability”

with “corruption and favouritism in gov ernment departments and corpora tions” undeniably widespread, he said.

The Opposition has begun to revive its attack on the government’s exten sion of parliamentary terms from three to five years because of the commis sion’s belief that five years is “too long a period to have to rely entirely for honest government on the “conscience and sheer honesty” of our human leaders “given the possibility that party disci pline can make Parliament’s control ineffective”.

Though it’s in black and white, the PM denies the commission said such a thing.

“Tofilau is a good politician," Tuiatua admits, but indicated that political skill cannot justify government supporters benefiting from contracts involved in the major development projects that have and are being undertaken.

One example that gives rise to such an accusation is the hiring in 1990 of a company owned by Post Office and Telecommunications Minister Toi Aukuso, to help the government-owned Electricity Corporation in the big rural electrification programme.

Compared to overseas contractors, Toi’s company’s costs are very low and in the best interests of the country, the com mission of inquiry says. But the work should now be tendered especially since Cabinet decided in 1991 that all government work should be awarded that way.

Toi has withdrawn as a director of the company and legislation for all govern ment work to be tendered is being pre pared, the PM announced during discus sions in Parliament of the commission’s report.

The good and bad results of the govern ment’s desire to get things done now is epitomised by Public Works Minister Leafa Vitale, a stroke victim last year, who the commission of inquiry said leads by “phenomenally energetic” example.

But Leafa s word has become the only rule and “effective check” not only of him but of everyone else in the depart ment has gone “out the window”.

Leafa’s achievements through his hands on approach cannot be denied.

“Unfortunately there is no denying either the almost total collapse of pro cedures and control systems in the department, making it easy for person nel at all levels to engage in improper and dishonest activities with impunity”,

the commission said.

The department’s undersecretary had a departmental bulldozer taken to his property where it levelled a part of it.

The explanation given to the commis sion: the bulldozer was taken there to be tested for repairs.

When, road improvements began several years ago workers were detoured to tar

seal the frontage and parking space for the HRPP headquarters. The explanation given by the Minister of Public Works in Parliament: they were testing the quality of the tar.

Support for the government seems now to rest on whether an appreciation of its work record can outweigh such tests. ■