The Royal Solomon Island Police Force signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ombudsman Office of Solomon Islands (OOSI) on the 20th January 2017 at Rove Police Headquarters, Honiara, Solomon Islands.
The Commissioner of Police Mr. Frank Prendergast said, “I’m pleased to be here today to sign the MoU which will assist the RSIPF and the Ombudsman Office of Solomon Islands to share information that will enable us to work cooperatively together to ensure that corrupt and inappropriate behaviours are dealt with appropriately.”
The Ombudsman, Mr. Joe Poraiwai said “This MoU is about lifting our cooperative effort to another level and ensuring matters are dealt with by the most appropriate organisation and that information is shared.”
The purpose of the MoU is to facilitate the exchange of information about corruption related matters to the extent permitted by relevant legislation, so that information received by either agency can be dealt with effectively and efficiently and by the most appropriate agency.
The MoU dwells on facilitating the exchange of relevant information to the extent permitted by relevant legislation, where both the agencies are considering the same issues or facts.
The MoU ensures that information handling and investigation activities of the RSIPF and the OOSI are not duplicated unnecessarily and are complementary.
The MoU further ensures that the information provided to one party about the other party are handled in accordance with the principles stated in this MOU.
The MoU provides information to both agencies who are committed to accountability and transparency in conducting their work, and acknowledge that each can be the subject of investigation by the other in accordance with the legislation administered by the other agency. Equally, both agencies respect each other’s specific roles, areas of expertise, and decisions concerning priorities and resource allocation.