SACKED Civil Aviation acting director George Satu has been reported to have sent his daughter to undertake aviation training overseas although she was not an Aviation employee.
Attorney General and chairman of Civil Aviation Authority of Solomon Islands (CAASI) James Apaniai revealed this.
Mr Apaniai was responding to allegations Satu levelled against him, claiming a business owned by the attorney general’s wife has been supplying toilet papers and other products to the Airport Management.
Dismissing the allegation, Mr Apaniai said his wife was only a shareholder in First Fruit Company Ltd, the company Satu referred to as being owned by his wife.
He said First Fruit, a registered company, does not sign a contract to supply toilet papers to the Airport.
The attorney general further added the sale of toilet paper to the Airport Management in 2015 by First Fruit was a one-off transaction done when the Airport was in urgent need of the product.
He then revealed how Satu tried to withdraw $30,000 from the Civil Aviation Special Fund for his daughter to travel to Munda, Western Province.
“After I received the Auditor’s Report, I instructed Satu that from now on I would not be signing any Aviation Fund cheques, especially any cheque which is payable to me as chairman,” Mr Apaniai said.
“Satu had complied with my instructions but what I did not know was he had been going direct to the PS/Finance and the Accountant General (who are also signatories to the Aviation Fund Account) to sign cheques,” he added.
“I only became aware of that when I got a message that Satu had seen the PS/Finance to sign an Aviation Fund cheque for $30,000 payable to his (Satu’s) own daughter to travel to Munda Airport to carry out certain aviation tasks.
“I sent a message to the PS not to sign the cheque, the reasons being that, first, I am not aware what aviation qualifications the daughter had to justify her going to Munda to perform aviation tasks and what tasks was she going to perform.
“Second, my understanding is that the daughter was not a formal employee of CAASI because CAASI employees were still being appointed by Public Service Commission (PSC) and that the PSC had refused to appoint the daughter as an employee of CAASI.
“I therefore found it strange that Satu should be engaging his own daughter to carry out aviation tasks at Munda when she was not an employee of CAASI, let alone paying her $30,000.
“I have also just learned that Satu had also been sending his daughter overseas at CAASI expense on civil aviation courses despite knowing that his daughter was not an employee of CAASI.
“Unfortunately, my instructions to the PS Finance not to sign the cheque were late.
“The PS had already signed the cheque and given it to Satu.
“On learning about that, I immediately wrote to the ANZ Bank (on 25 May 2017) instructing ANZ not to honour any cheque payable out of the Aviation Fund with immediate effect until further instructions from me.
“ANZ accepted my instructions.
“The ‘stop payment’ instructions commenced on 25 May and are still in force until now.
“A few days later (8 June 2017), Satu found out that I had instructed ANZ to put a stop to any payment out of the Aviation Fund.
“His reaction was swift. He sent me an email threatening to close down CAASI.
“He also accused me and the PS/MCA of micro-managing CAASI.
“He told me that all operational CAASI tasks would be forwarded to me for attention and action because he had no money to operate due to my closure of the Aviation Fund account.
“I responded by requesting him to continue carrying out his duties as Director and that if he needed money he should contact the PS/MCA who has custody of the $6 million approved by Cabinet.
“He did not accept my explanation.”
Satu, who had wrote two articles raising allegations against Mr Apaniai, Aviation minister Peter Shanel, and Permanent Secretary Moses Virivolomo, had not responded to Mr Apaniai’s article.
Findings of an audit carried out into the use of the Aviation special fund has been referred to the police.
By LESLY SANGA