If there is one positive that has come out from the controversy over the Samoa Land Corporation’s Sogi flea market project in recent days, it would be the admission by a caretaker Cabinet Minister that they chose to disregard a stop work order issued by the Planning and Urban Management Agency.

The admission by the caretaker Minister of the Samoa Land Corporation in the 28 March 2021 edition of the Sunday Samoan (Minister deliberately ignored stop work order) throws light on the decision by the S.L.C. contractor to continue working last week at the project site despite the P.U.M.A. issuing a stop work order.

Caretaker Minister Lautafi Selafi Purcell cut to the chase, when approached by the Samoa Observer and asked to comment on the stop work order.

“It is not our fault the [P.U.M.A.] did not follow their own process for Development Consent [matters],” Lautafi told the Samoa Observer.

“The reclamation works will not stop.”

According to the Minister, the S.L.C. followed due process and legitimately obtained a development consent for the project, which meant that they were free to proceed with the work at Sogi.

But the decision by the Minister and the S.L.C. to disregard the stop work order hasn’t gone down well with the caretaker Minister of Works Transport and Infrastructure, Papalii Niko Lee Hang.

“That is their duty to follow up with [the stop order] already issued,” said Papalii. 

“A direct order was given to stop the works and it should be stopped, because there should have been consultations with the nearby businesses, and that is all I can say about that.”

So who was at fault in the first place as we take stock of this matter, which could now threaten solidarity within the caretaker Cabinet, but more importantly points to a Government agency disregarding the regulatory powers of a sister-agency?

It is obvious Papalii now finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place: over the Human Rights Protection Party-led Government’s policy to build a new market at Sogi to cater for vendors from the Savalalo flea market of which he is a party member; and the enforcement powers of the P.U.M.A. in relation to land development over which he has direct ministerial responsibility.

Therefore will official party policy, in this case that of the H.R.P.P. and their Government’s plans to redevelop the area where the Savalalo flea market is currently located, take precedence over the enforcement of the Planning and Urban Management Act 2004? 

By all accounts Lautafi is determined to push ahead and he made no secret of this in his interview with this newspaper.

“The business [...] went to P.U.M.A. to get a notice, but it will not stop anything,” he said. 

“What can S.L.C. do?

“They were given the consent to go through with the works and then [P.U.M.A.] came back afterwards to stop it. 

“They cannot do that, issue the consent and then rescind their decision and it’s their fault for not following their process. 

“Now they are interfering with work that has been planned for a long time.”

It has been a long-time indeed as this newspaper’s own records show that the Cabinet approved the relocation of the Savalalo flea market to Sogi in April 2019, when the SLC Chief Executive Officer Ulugia Petelo Kavesi first announced the decision.

And the caretaker Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sa'ilele Malielegaoi discussed the Sogi market project in November last year on his weekly radio programme on 2AP, saying his government had plans to erect another building at the current site of the Savalalo flea market as an office for public servants.

So this should explain where the pressure is coming from for Lautafi to press ahead with the project, despite the objections of his Cabinet colleague Papalii.

It has now become apparent that respect for the government’s systems and processes, which lies at the core of the country’s governing framework, has gone out the window!

What happened to rational and sensibility and promoting a talanoa session wherein all parties including the S.L.C., the P.U.M.A. and the disgruntled business owners met to discuss a way forward?

We still believe someone at the S.L.C. should be held accountable for refusing to take heed of a stop work order issued by the P.U.M.A. in relation to this project.

Probably, Minister Lautafi doesn’t realise that his decisions in relation to this project have a lot of implications for the country.

Any government, past and present and in the future, would want its people to have respect for the rule of law and acknowledge that all institutions and entities – both public and private – are accountable to the laws of the land.

The Minister’s statement for the S.L.C. to press ahead with the Sogi project undermines the regulatory authority of the P.U.M.A. and does not augur well for the rule of law in Samoa.