GAO-BUGOTU HANDSOVER COURT HOUSE TO GOV’T

Hon Manetoali and PS Paul Mae with people and children of Gao Bugotu at the court house opening

Hon Manetoali hands over keys to PS Paul Mae

PS Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs

Gao-Bugotu constituency in Isabel Province has taken the lead to build and handover a new modern court house to the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs and the National Judiciary at a historic ceremony at Tatamba Tuesday this week.

The court house will now do away with the administration of justice and legal services under temporary shelters or huge trees like in the past.

The court house which cost more than SB$700,000.00 to build was jointly funded by the Solomon Islands Government and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under the Rural Constituency Development Fund (RCDF) Scheme.

Member of Parliament for the constituency, Samuel Manetoali said the vision to build the court house is to provide an avenue for the proper administration of legal services in rural areas which will strengthen law and order in the constituency.

“We the people of Gao-Bugotu are law abiding citizens and would like to see law and order strengthened in the constituency,” Manetoali said.

In receiving keys to the facility, Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs, Paul Mae who attended the ceremony described the handover event as historic for the justice sector which marked the first time that a constituency has taken the initiative to build its own court house.

“This event marks the first time that a community has taken the initiative to build a courthouse. This is not a small achievement as it takes a lot of resources, finance and time construct this building and for that my Ministry if indebted to you,” Mae said.

The event also demonstrates where Gao-Bugotu people places it priorities and justice services is a priority area they want to improve in their constituency.

“This court house will help our court circuits a lot as we now have a place to hold court hearings,” Mae added.

The Isabel Provincial Government is a key partner in this project and has been supportive with land allocation at Tatamba for the court house building.

The Isabel Provincial Government Deputy Premier Tony Vahia thanked all partners in this development project saying the Province is ready to assist with land allocation for development of vital infrastructure services on Provincial Government Land.

“With the completion and handing over of the court house, our province will be able to host court cases in a comfortable and conducive environment,” Vahia said.

The completion of the court house will attract the provision of improved legal and justice services to a close to ten thousand people of the Gao-Bugotu constituency.

-GCU Press