ROLES of stakeholders in the Child and Family Welfare Bill 2016 are not properly articulated.

The Member of Parliament for Small Malaita Hon Rick Hou told Parliament yesterday that some representatives of existing operators dealing with children and family affairs have raised the question why everything regarding the Bill would fall on the Director of Social Welfare.

“This is again another unreasonable expectation given the geographical scattered of our country, not to mention the transportation and communications challenges we have.

“If it was only Honiara-based children and families that we are dealing with, perhaps it would be reasonable to expect to have the involvement of the Director in the manner intended under the Bill.

“The practical situation in this country is that we do not have Social Welfare officers even in all our provincial capitals,” said Hon Rick Hou.

He further added that it is nearly impossible to deal with the Director on life threatening situations, happening at the same time in many remote parts of the country.

The Bill has provisions for the involvement of police officers.

“It is practically impossible for example, to expect an officer in Auki to respond and attend to a call on a life threatening situation in a community up in the highlands of South Malaita.

“The issue is that without their roles being well explained, the Bill when it comes to law is giving the impression that it would be illegal to deal with calls and situations without the involvement of a police officer or unless authorised by the Director,” Hon Hou strongly added.

This the MP for Small Malaita said, must be properly addressed either through regulations or through public awareness programmes, or both.