_{^{CREDIT: Google Earth/Charley Piringi}}

But rather than connecting with a nearby coastal road, a path has instead been cut into the virtually impassable mountainous jungle of Guadalcanal’s interior. About 20 kilometers in, the path peters out to nothing, reporters from In-depth Solomons found during a visit late last year.

While the project is technically still ongoing, work has largely stopped.

“This road cuts through our land but serves no one,“ said Abraham Luba, chair of the local Tetekanchi ward, where Sanggasere is located. “It doesn’t go through or near any village.”

The road-to-nowhere was constructed with equipment provided by powerful Chinese mining businessman Dan Shi, whose companies, Win Win Investment Solomon and New Asia Mining Co., hold some of the most important mining and prospecting concessions in Solomon Islands. 

The unfinished project stands as a testament to what for years has been criticized as a too-close relationship between Tovosia and Shi. Since taking up his role in 2019, Tovosia has faced accusations, including in parliament, that he had made decisions favorable to Shi’s companies and had improperly accepted assistance in his constituency.

That relationship appears to have since declined. This week, Tovosia  issued an indefinite suspension to Win Win, following a complaint from rival company Gold Ridge that Shi’s company was mining on its concession. 

But even with Shi’s future in doubt, the road the two men failed to build together remains a scar in the forest near Sanggesere. Many locals are confused and angry.

But why would Tovosia have signed off on a road into such rugged and sparsely populated territory?

For Nicholas Biliki, a former director of mines, the likely answer is obvious: this forbidding corner of Guadalcanal has not yet been prospected for minerals, and Tovosia gave Shi a way in.

“They might be thinking that whatever they might find on the road cutting proves to them they have to mine the place,” Biliki said. “But to me, that looks foolish.”

None of Shi’s companies are registered in the construction sector, yet Tovosia nonetheless awarded the road construction job to the businessman without any tender process, environmental assessment, or consultation with local officials.

That lack of expertise and proper planning was evident during a visit to the construction site.

Little better than a rough-cut dirt path, parts of the road have already collapsed down the mountainsides. Locals complain that rivers have been polluted. Even some who worked on the road say it’s too dangerous to drive. 

“This road is going to kill a lot of people if they use it to transport people,” said Calisto Mateia, a local who worked on the project. “It doesn’t look like a road that we can travel.” It is unclear what Shi’s companies have received in return for their work. Shi declined to respond in detail to requests for comment, saying only that the local MP, Tovosia, was in charge of deciding what route the new road should take.

“Our response is the road was under (Tovosia’s) constituency so we have nothing to say about that,” he said in a text message.

Tovosia did not respond to questions sent by reporters.

Tovosia has given conflicting accounts about the funding of the project. In public statements, he has said the project has been financed in part by either SBD 2 million or SBD 3 million from his Constituency Development Fund (CDF). 

Originally funded by Taiwan, the CDF has been paid for by Beijing since Solomon Islands switched diplomatic recognition to the mainland in 2019. The fund is subject to little oversight, and previous reporting has found the money has only been given to MPs who, like Tovosia, support Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.

MPs have near-complete discretion over how the money is used, leading to criticism from transparency advocates that the money acts as an unaccountable slush fund for pro-government incumbents.

In May 2022, Tovosia announced that the road project has also received at least SBD 300,000 in assistance from China’s embassy to pay for fuel. 

The Chinese embassy responded to questions about the CDF with a statement underlining their continued support for Solomon Islands’ development. They said they have recently reformed the program to make it more responsive to the country’s development needs.

“Since 2023, according to a new agreement between the Chinese government and Solomon Islands government, China and Solomon Islands started the new program of Rural Sustainable Development Program (RSDP). RSDP is project-based and implemented by Solomon Islands Ministry of Rural Development.”

Tovosia’s plan for the Sanggasere road has left both local residents and provincial  officials suspicious.

Guadalcanal provincial officials say the minister’s difficult inland route is a strange departure from much simpler plans, first floated decades ago, to connect the area to Honiara by completing a ring road around the more densely populated coast. 

Such a connection forms part of the province’s current strategic development plan, said Andrew Tahisihaka, Guadalcanal’s finance minister (Tahisihaka is contesting the April 17 election against Tovosia).  

When he first announced the plan for his inland road in 2021, Tovosia claimed that work would be finished by mid-2022. In late 2022, he assured an In-Depth Solomons reporter that 50 of the planned 60 kilometers had already been completed. 

However, satellite images and GPS data show that only about 21 km of road had been built as of early this year.