NISCOL majority shareholders dismiss order by minority shareholder

Following the recent appointment of investigators to carry out an audit on the Northern Islands Stevedoring Company (NISCOL) initiated by the Minister of Finance Moana Carcasses, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Kalfao Moli has dismissed the ministerial orders as meaningless and demands an urgent review to avoid conflict of interest.

“Until the majority of shareholders of NISCOL give consent to such an order, NISCOL Management will regard the Investigators as the minister’s attempt at using political force to destabilise NISCOL's operation at the main wharf on Santo.

“We also demand that a review be made of the so-called investigators to avoid conflict of interest,” Moli stated in the statement.

“NISCOL welcomes with great reservations recent moves by the government to establish a so-called team of investigators to assess the affairs of NISCOL.

“The management of NISCOL is open to further constructive ideas from the government but cautions that dialogue should be made through the “custodians of the government’s 10% share.”

When he spoke with Daily Post, CEO of NISCOL Kalfao Moli said that until a proper review is made of each candidate in the so-called team of investigators and a detailed terms of reference is jointly approved by the majority of shareholders, he in his position will regard the recent order by the Minister of Finance to set up a commission of enquiry into NISCOL as purely political interference in the affairs of the company therefore will not be welcomed.

Attempts to reach the minister for Finance for comments on the issue before this issue went to print was not successful but it is understood that Minister Moana Carcasses will be visiting Santo along with the NISCOL commissioned members soon to officially assign them to the task.

Meanwhile, the NISCOL issue is currently a big issue on Santo and most observers commented that it is timely to carry out such an investigation into the company as it is a state property but it seems that not everyone is benefiting from the company as expected.

The company has reported the year 2010’s financial year as securing an operations profit of just over Vt72 million with this year’s estimate to be around Vt61 million due to huge projected investments in new machineries.