Ma’asina Forum (MMF) president has lashed out at Solomon Islands National Provident Fund board chairman Mr Baoro Laxton Koraua for making a non-sense attack on him.
Forum president Charles Dausabea said Mr Koraua must not try to confuse himself and the entire fund members of his unfounded comments.
“…see I’m not an economist, but since day one when we heard of the loan that was given to Tavanipupu, we told this country this is not a viable investment.
“But the board said the loan to Tavanipupu was given based on sound and economic advice and analysis. But is that true today now that the loan is accumulating due to unpaid loan repayments?” Dausabea asked.
He further questioned what sort of sound and economic advices did Mr Koraua and his board accepts to give the loan to Tavanipupu.
Dausabea said even a lame businessman like himself without any accounting or economic background can foresee the loan as a big mistake.
He said although NPF said it was an investment, the background of the issue was that Tavanipupu had a $7m loan with the commercial bank which it can’t afford to repay therefore it has to apply to NPF to cover the $7m and further top it with an extra $8m.
“Is this a sound economic investment as claimed by the chairman and his board? Dausabea questioned.
He stressed that this has shown how unwise the chairman was to try and cover up their back for a bad investment despite claiming it was a secured investment.
Dausabea said Koraua need to apologise to say that MMF is saying something nonsense because since day one this is the issue MMF raised with NPF board and today the public has seen what happened.
“We are speaking on behalf of our people who come through us to speak their grievances and yet the NPF board chair said we speak nonsense. But I must remind the chair that majority of contributions of the fund is that of Malaitans and the chair need to take note of that,” Dausabea said.
Adding, Mr Koraua should not personalise issues since the fund does not belongs to him and his board members but the people of this country of which are dominated by Malaitans.
Dausabea said Koraua should listen to what MMF said and do the right thing since 70 percent of shares is owned by Malaitans.
The forum president also rubbishes the statement made by the chair about recovery of the money, saying it will not make profit and that it will take time to recover the money.
Meanwhile Dausabea said if the people of Russell want to sell RIPEL (99 islands) to the government for $24 million, how much worth is the seven bungalows and 37 hectares of land?
“We know what is going on here now that a private business wants to buy the island. But I must warn NPF not to invest in anymore hotels to be built in Honiara. Because definitely this new hotel will seek loans from the commercial banks and NPF. But we will be watching because we know what is going on and will continue to inform our people about these dirty dealings,” Dausabea said.
He warned the NPF board chairman not to tell MMF comments as nonsense again because what MMF said are true and has revealed the truth.
Adding, the granting of the loan by the board is the most nonsense thing to do as its result has spoken volumes.
He stressed that proper and diligent analysis must be made before any investment is made because it is the people’s money that is used and not the board’s money.
“The claimed Tavanipupu investment is not making money so why try to defend. This is what we termed as nonsense. So the best thing to do is for the finance minister to sack the chairman and his board or else the Prime Minister should sack the finance minister and the NPF board,” Dausabea slammed.
BY DANIEL NAMOSUAIA
