20 Sep 2005

Former Samoan auditor general aims to lead new party into parliament.

7:29 pm on 20 September 2005

A new political party in Samoa is aiming to restore the primacy of Parliament in the political process.

The Samoa Party is to be headed by Su'a Rimoni Ah Chong, who was sacked as Auditor General in 1995 after he produced a scathing report detailing corruption and abuse in government.

Su'a says they want to restore the independence of the institutions set up under the constitution to provide the country with governance.

He says the ruling Human Rights and Protection Party in 1997 took away the independence of the Auditor General's office and in recent months the executive has suppressed the proper functioning of parliament.

"It's very difficult to achieve good governance if you don't have accountability and transparency in Parliament. Irrespective of what reforms are done below that -when it gets there it doesn't get debated in the way that it needs to be for people to understand whether the government has done things in accordance with the law."