Andrew Solomon Napuat

The Minister of Internal Affairs has called on the media to be responsible in its reporting.

The call was made yesterday morning during a press conference organised by the Ministry to clear confusion and allegations of corruption surrounding the recruitment selection of police officers.

The initial matter was influenced by a post on social media where Minister Andrew Napuat was accused of interfering with recruitment process by allegedly submitting a so-called list of 18 people from his constituency of Tanna to be included in the final police recruitment list.

Napuat however, refuted the allegations and cleared the air via Daily Post on this matter and explained his intentions to have the selection process conducted by an Independent body, not the Commissioner of Police.

The Minister confirmed that a policy paper has been drafted and has been approved by Development Committee of Officials (DCO) to amend the Vanuatu Police Force CAP 105 to remove the power to make police recruitment from the Commissioner of Police.

He explained that the sole intention to this amendment is to avoid the “ongoing practice of family business” during the recruitment process.

Acting Commissioner of Police, Willie Ben was not convinced with Napuat’s response to the issue and voiced his concern via Daily Post, alleging that Napuat has provided a list of 18 people and made instructions to include them in the final recruitment list.

Minister Napuat expressed his frustrations on how the front page of Daily Post of Issue no. 5629 was worded. The headline at the time stated, “Minister selects Tanna recruits.”

Whilst the issue of the list of 18 people from Tanna alone was already clarified in Daily Post Issue no. 5630, the Minister said this particular headline implied that he actually included 18 people on the list in the final recruitment list, which was not the case.

The minister said the Daily Post headline of Issue no. 5629 has caused mistrusts between the Ministry responsible for Police, VPF and the Commission.

He added that there are proper processes to follow to acquire information such as contacting the police Media Unit.

source:Vanuatu daily post