AN alleged network involving senior officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) appears to have turned the controversial shipping grants into a source of kickbacks, documents obtained by Island Sun have revealed.

Up to three senior government ministers allegedly received kickbacks totalling $2 million in 2016 alone, according to that year’s record of disbursements. An applicant who received $4.5 million from that year’s grants paid the three ministers the money.

One minister received $1 million, while the other two were paid $500, 000 each, the documents show. But the applicant never owned a boat, neither has he bought one with the $2.5 million that he kept after paying the three ministers, the documents show.

The man who claimed to have one of the three Ministers under his control owing to an election-related matter, said he had put in for $5 million in this year’s grants to buy a tourist fast craft boat.

He said at the time that he was applying under a new business name from the company name he used last year. The company the man used last year to obtain $4.5 million had no business record in the Company Haus register, the documents show. The status of his application this year is unknown.

The funding grant was quite a contrast to what a boat operator/owner received last year. After he was told both verbally and in writing that he would receive $5 million, the amount was scaled down to $2.5 million.

But that was not what he received. The shipowner/operator received a mere $1 million.

“I am not sure where the rest of the money had gone,” he said.

But that’s not all.

Documents also show that a couple applied for funding under separate names for grants in 2016. Both applications were successful. They collected a total $4 million.

In analysing the documents a pattern appears to have emerged. Individuals with no boats or experience in the boat building industry appear to have more successes with their applications than boat owners and operators.

One owner/operator explained that the reason this is so is because the kickbacks are usually pre-arranged and the Ministers and officials know what they were going to get well before the decisions on applications were made.

“Those who own no boats are always ready and willing to part with a portion of their grants than those who own and or operate boats.

“Boat owners and or operators have fixed budgets when they apply. It is therefore hard to part with a portion of their grants, once approved,” one boat owner/operator explained.

“Those who own no boats but want the money to spend on whatever they want are the easy targets. That is why you see there is a pattern. Those who own and operate boats get less, but those who do not almost always get larger allocations from the shipping grants,” the individual business owner said.

One other applicant who received a substantial amount last year spent most of his time at a casino in Honiara until he was threatened to be exposed, sources said.

“The man was told that unless he paid each of the people in the group, he would be exposed for spending the shipping grants money on gambling. He ended up paying each of the men up to $20, 000 each,” the sources said.