I did it my way!

J. Roughan

23 April 2009

Honiara    

 

Not many years ago, a famous pop singer, Frank Sinatra, crooned the song: I did it my way!  It became an instant hit around the world. The song's words spoke to many people who were fed up with so many official rules, laws and commands. The song struck a deep feeling of acceptance in many people's minds.

 

Unfortunately, the real world runs on rules, does have its laws and most of all, its regulations. All these are suppose to be for the better running of a nation, an organization, even a small family. For instance, these regulations must be followed by all, both big and small, to make sure things go along smoothly.

 

Last week, however, our nation learnt that one of its largest companies, Gold Ridge Mining Company thought itself above the law, decided to follow its own rules and have company regulations come first, not those of the Solomons. It imported a dozen Fiji security  people on its own without going through proper procedures.

 

The company was caught red handed and within a week's time all the Fijian security personnel were sent packing back to their home country. Our Ministry of Immigration had been altered, it asked a few pertinent questions and found out that there had been a major breach in national sovereignty. GRML was immediately put on notice that it had broken immigration rules and the imported security personnel from Fiji had to  return to their own country.

 

That was a feather in the cap of our immigration officials! However, it's sad to report that this kind of incident where foreign companies try to "do it their way" is nothing new. On the contrary there are other cases when foreign companies "do it their own way" which leaves the nation looking like a 'banana republic'. Take the case of the failed oil palm scheme on Vangunu Island in the Western Province.

 

Hundreds of Solomon Island workers have lost thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, salaries, NPF payments and redundancy payouts which were owed by Mr. Wong of the Malaysian Logging company of Silvania Products. Government had been repeatedly warned for many years  about the dubious nature of the logging company's oil palm venture. From the beginning the 5,000 hectares of state land at Merusu, Vangunu was an obvious logging operation masquerading as a palm oil scheme.

 

How right the critics were! Where were Agriculture Department officials, Forestry Division, Ministry of Commerce, etc. etc.? Shouldn't one or more of these ministries been more active to insure that a foreign 'investor' wasn't just using our natural resources for its own purposes. Now, CNURA Government rushes to put out the fire that has already destroyed the house. Project workers, some more than 15 years on the job, never received their entitlements--NPF contributions, redundancy payments, salaries, etc.--and have to wait now for a government task force to be set up.

 

It would be comforting to believe that the Vangunu fiasco was an exception to the rule. Unfortunately we have a similar case right under our noses. PDL Toll (formerly known as Patrick Defense Logistics) operates and services the Guadalcanal Beach Resort (GBR) near Henderson Airport. The PDL Toll company provides the Participating Police Force and troops with all their logistic requirements. 

 

Since 2003, when RAMSI became a dominating fact of Solomon Islands life, the company running GBR, depended upon recruiting local staff to work, prepare food, cook, clean, etc. But during this whole period, the operating company has denied it is the first and major employer of the GBR work force. In Parliament's March sitting, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition raised this very question with the Minister of Commerce.  The Government, however, seems to be unsure of which group is really the employer

 

Yet, it seems clear enough to a typical person studying the GBR operation which organization is the employer. Perhaps this is the place to bring in the "Duck Principle". If a bird looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's a DUCK. The group in control at GBR alone hires and fires employees, sets work rules, pays workers salaries, directs clothing requirements and does what an employer does. According to the Duck Principle, it and it alone is the employer and needs to act totally like an employer.