Vanuatu watchdog group concerned with politicians

Transcript

The head of the watch group Transparency International Vanuatu is calling on government and the opposition to respect the laws of the country.

Marie Noelle Ferrieux Patterson says recent discriminating comments by the opposition against prime minister Moana Carcasses, who is a naturalized citizen, breaches laws.

But she says government leaders must also abide by the constitution following recent controversial political appointments and development projects.

She spoke to our correspondent Hilaire Bule.

MARIE NOELLE FERRIEUX PATTERSON: There is a fundamental right and duty that are guaranteed in the constitution and one of them is certainly that the Republic of Vanuatu recognises that all persons are entitled to the fundamental rights and freedom without discrimination on the ground of race, place of origin, religious belief or traditional belief, politically opinion, language or sex.  To have a group of people who are suppose to represent all of opposition stating that people have got to be discriminated by race is a total breach of the constitution.  In fact, in being in breach of the constitution they are in breach of the leadership code and as such their rights to be considered as a leader could actually be challenged, could be challenged in court with sanction that they lose their leadership, breach of law, breach of constitution and especially constitution are very serious matters.

HILAIRE BULE: You have on the other side the opposition accusing the government of nepotism.

MFP: Nepotism is one of the aspects of corruption. We have seen recently a person who served a prison term in Vanuatu for bribery that later on was found guilty in a Supreme court in Brisbane in Australia last September for conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth of Australia and was sentenced at the time to 5-and-half years in prison, and now that person has been appointed as a first political adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs, I mean in any country that type of appointment should raise the eyebrows of all the journalists, of all the people in the country and wondering where is our ethic gone.

HB: Prime minister stated that when he was appointed prime minister, he would combat corruption in Vanuatu, but it seems that Mr Carcasses has failed his promise.

MFP:  That is one aspect, I think you always have to not take one aspect, and look more at serious actions like signing of contracts for big amounts of money where the tender rules are not respected, which we are investigating at the moment.  You have look at a wide range of aspects and the positive and negative.  There is still controversy about the future airport, I think that is suddenly a concern.  But you have to look at the whole picture, positive and negative before saying he has totally failed to fight corruption, I would look more at the prime minister doing something about the Ombudsman's office. I attended the first workshop where the prime minister was there with the newly appointed ombudsman, Matas Kelekele, former president of Vanuatu, saying that things were going to be done, things were going to change, legislation was going to change to allow prosecution by the ombudsman and now it's almost a year and nothing has happened and we haven't heard from the ombudsman.

Transparency International Vanuatu's Marie Noelle Ferrieux Patterson. Radio New Zealand International is seeking comment from the government on the recent appointments.