A former Solomon Islands Finance Minister has been charged for official misconduct.

The Solomon Star newspaper says Rick Hou, who was also a long serving Central Bank governor, is being taken to court by the Leadership Code Commission along with his former permanent secretary and current permanent secretary of the Ministry of Development Planning, Shadrach Fanega.

The charges are in relation to the pair's alleged misuse of constituency development funds between 2004 and 2005. They are alleged to have bought a small passenger vessel the MV Small Mala in the constituency's name and later privatised the vessel in their own names.

Source: Radio New Zealand