June busy month for Makira province

 Tuesday, 13 July 2010 15:53


June has been a month full of preparations, training, and sports the Makira Ulawa Provincial government (MUPG) says in its newsletter released yesterday.

At the beginning of the month our Provincial Secretary (PS) travelled to Honiara to receive instructions and training on the management of the National Elections.

Following, a team from Honiara visited our province to train our officers and other election officials in the organization and administration of the national elections.

Our officers have since travelled around the province to raise awareness of the elections and its procedures and to present posters and leaflets about the election rules.

MUPG has also opened an election office in the former PS residence.

If anyone has questions about the elections, please feel free to pass by this office and our officers will be happy to discuss with you.

The elections will find place on August 4th.

Many candidates have now registered to compete for the seats in Parliament.

We wish them all the best and call for free and fair campaign and election.

Given the election date, the Executive has decided to postpone the 2nd Appointed Day festivities to be held in Ulawa by one Month.

Three officers in the Treasury Department (Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer and Payroll Officer) recently spent time in Honiara for intensive training in MYOB - a computer accounting program. All passed the course and received their certificates.

More training in Kirakira will be organized, but already our finance department will be able to better account and report revenue and expenses against our budget through this program.

We expect this will increase our budget management capacities and accountability, which should support us in providing more and better services to you.

The Solomon Island Central Bank visited our province and provided its SMART training which had the objective to create understanding, raise awareness and train people in the basics of finances and banking.

We want to applaud the Central Bank for this initiative and thank the trainers for their efforts.

Another important announcement comes from the ANZ Bank, which visited our province during the month.

They are planning to install an ATM in Kirakira, which we hope will help address the regular problems we have of cash shortages in the province.

MUPG’s strong stance with logging companies seems to be paying off.

At the start of the year, MUPG communicated to all logging companies that it will not sign any license without first receiving 50% of the annual license fee and a commitment to pay the other 50% and in case its arrears.

Many logging companies have already transferred their first payment to the provincial bank account.

MUPG vows to maintain this strong stance and in the case that companies stop paying their remaining fees, we will withdraw licenses and or take other actions.

MUPG needs to analyze its budget to see if this increase in revenues will also lead to a surplus in our budget.

In case, we will keep you updated on how we will plan to spend this additional budget on services and infrastructure for you.

For the first time in many years, a Librarian Workshop was organized in Kirakira. All Principals, Deputy Principals and English teachers came and participated in this workshop over the school holidays. Also the Early Childhood Education (block 3) teachers’ training has started.

This program is run in partnership with World Vision. We want to thank the Education Authorities and World Vision for their hard work.

Between 9-10th June, the annual Wogasia or spear fighting festival held in St Catalina was celebrated by the island communities.

The festival is an exciting traditional event in which a chain of ceremonies outline the story of how the Aorigi clans, men and women came together in peace and harmony.

A group of 15 international tourists visited the festival and many local people returned to participate.

All were impressed with the organization of the festival and the hospitality of the Aorigi community.

The festival also demonstrates the potential for tourism in our Province and the need to better promote our local events.

Also in mid-June a large delegation from Makira Ulawa travelled to Auki, Malaita, to compete in the Solomon Games.

Around 130 young men and women fought for our pride and honor. Unfortunately, rain delayed many sports programs and concerns about allowance payments for referees further challenged the program.

Nevertheless, this could not take away the excitement and good performances of our teams.

Makira won one Golden medal (Athletics) and several Silver (Athletics, Taekwondo, Futsal, Netball) and Bronze medals (Table tennis, Athletics, Taekwondo). We want to congratulate all with their successes.

All over the Province, our people are following the World Cup Soccer in South Africa.

New Zealand which represented our Pacific region played well and drew all its games, even against Italy which is the present World Champion.

Unfortunately, the Kiwi’s did not make it into the second round and became third in their pool.

However as we know Spain had win the world cup title and all the best to them.



-Makira Ulawa monthly newsletter ( from http://www.solomonstarnews.com/)