REMOVED Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Finance Shadrach Fanega was removed for something else and not for withholding terminal grants according to a reliable source.
The source within Cabinet and the government claimed Mr Fanega accompanied Small Malaita outgoing MP Rick Hou to the United States (US) without the approval of the government.
“On top of that, he also received traveling allowances from public funds,” the source said.
The source claimed that praising Mr Fanega and coating his removal with terminal grants was misleading.
“The truth of the matter is, he accompanied Mr Hou, and on their return, reroute to Tokyo, Japan to look at purchasing a ship for the Small Malaita Shipping Company, which they both allegedly held 99 percent shares in.
“All the media reports saying he was removed for not releasing terminal grants to MPs were misleading.”
Mr Fanega was replaced by Fred Fakari’i who prior to the reshuffling held the Permanent Secretary’s post of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The source said many former ministers will never receive the terminal grants because they are holding onto government vehicles and incurred other arrears.
The source said if the boat purchase in Japan was done with the $3 million given to the South Malaita Constituency for as shipping grants, it will be unfair to constituents because of the shareholding arrangement of the shipping company.
Caretaker Finance Minister Rick Hou, Mr Fanega and two other directors of Small Malaita Shipping were taken to court last year in relation to the ownership and management of the shipping company.
Claimant Jerry Hite claimed then that Mr Hou owns 99 percent share and Fanega (fanga) 1 percent after its re-registration on October 10, 2011.
The claimant has sought amongst other remedies, declarations that the Small Malaita Shipping Company is a private limited company owned by Rick Hou and Shadrach Fanega, that company financed initially through funding from Small Malaita Constituency (SMC) funds and other constituency entitlement funds and that the company originally intended to be owned as a charitable trust property for its people of SMC as beneficiaries.
He claimed then that the company’s ownership structure defeated the original intention of the company to be a charitable trust company for the people of SMC in the absence of any trust provisions being contained in the company’s Articles of Association (AOA) and Memorandum of Association (MOA).
Those claims were brushed aside by Mr Fanega during that time saying at no time and never have they changed the ownership of MV Small Mala and the registration of Small Malaita Shipping Company as their own.
“The initial registration of the Small Malaita Shipping company as a private company under the Companies Act (1961) and its re-registration under the Companies Act 2009 had been proper and legal and fully met the requirements of these various Acts and had been agreed by the Small Malaita Shipping company board and consistent with the objectives of the Company,” Mr Fanega said in a statement.
The Solomon Star re-confirmed the shareholding arrangement of the shipping company on Tuesday and the shareholders remain 99 percent for Rick Hou and one percent under Shadrach Fanega.
By EDNAL PALMER
