PM congratulates Premier Sikilabu

Prime Minister Honorable Manasseh Sogavare today congratulates Isabel Province on the election of its new Provincial Premier and the country’s first female premier, Hon. Rhoda Sikilabu. Hon. Sikilabu was declared new premier at the closure of nominations yesterday, as her nomination was unopposed following Sunday’s resignation of former premier Leslie Kikolo. PM Sogavare said, the…

Vokias’ case adjourned

THE matter of Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Guadalcanal Constituency Ethel Vokia and her husband Jaimie Jamie Vokia and three others has been adjourned to March 28. This is for the Public Solicitor’s Office (PSO) to confirm whether they will provide legal representation to four of the defendants including Jamie who sought legal…

Australia and Solomon Islands tackle COVID-19 together with a boost to testing capability and laboratory facilities

Australia has delivered a new GeneXpert machine and 400 testing cartridges to assist the National Referral Hospital’s (NRH) molecular laboratory to diagnose COVID-19. This machine can return COVID-19 test results within an hour. It can also test four times the number of samples at any one-time compared to previous GeneXpert machines in use, providing rapid…

New Isabel premier to be officially declared

THE new Premier for Isabel Provincial Government (IPG) will be officially declared today after nomination closed yesterday. The position became vacant following the resignation of former Premier Leslie Kikolo on Sunday. Mr Kikolo faced a motion of no confidence ahead of yesterday’s Full Assembl Meeting. However, he decided to resign rather than facing the motion.…

$5M PAY PACKAGE

For Comptroller of Customs under a three years contract COMPTROLLER of Customs, Jim Sutton whose three-year contract was terminated by the Australian Government last December, has been rehired by the cash-strapped Solomon Islands government for a salary package of nearly $5 million a year, documents obtained by Solomon Star have revealed. The three-year contract which…

Kukum Highway road project resumes

PHASE two of the $243million Kukum Highway Project resumes today with road clearing. The project will cover the 6.3 kilometre road from the Ministry of Fisheries at Kukum to Honiara International Airport at Henderson. The project component will include 4 lane roads to Lungga Bridge and a 2 kilometre 2 lane road from Lungga Bridge…