23 Apr 2010

TI says Solomons sackings understandable

12:58 pm on 23 April 2010

A political watchdog says the Solomon Islands Prime Minister's decision to sack MPs he's accused of conspiring against a political stability bill is understandable.

Derek Sikua says he's sacked five government ministers because they were either absent during the vote on the bill, or were involved in a conspiracy to defeat it by ensuring that some back benchers were absent.

He's also removed some MPs he's accused of involvement in the plot, from their chairmanship of state owned enterprise boards.

The chair of Transparency International Solomon Islands, Bob Pollard, says the bill was a key piece of legislation for the government and its rejection by parliament is disappointing

"From the government's perspective they were very disappointed that these ministers didn't keep their commitment to the government. I think everyone recognised that political instability is a serious problem here that leads to serious corruption and so it's understandable that the PM would sack them."

Bob Pollard says independent MPs recognise they would lose their power if the political party system was stabilised.