Dear Editor – I read with excitement the above article in your recent publication.
I remember joining others in an article on your paper asking the government to ignore calls by certain individuals with hidden agendas to deport Mr Yow.
I said that we should give him time to prove himself and review his contract based on his performance in a mid-term review.
However, this achievement in eight months has spoken so loud, that if I were a current or former Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA) employee; I’d re-think what I am doing down there at the Ports Authority facilities.
One thing is certain here and that is, change always makes people nervous.
Nervous because their comfort zones and privacy as it were is being shaken so much so that their in-competencies are revealed and their influence in the organization is waning.
I like to salute Mr Yow and his team for proving to us Solomon Islanders that any State Owned Enterprise (SOEs) should be making money and not the other way around.
The problem with our SOEs is that when we put local people as CEOs and other senior management level posts, we tend to abuse that position and started filling our own and cronies’ pockets.
I am of the opinion that SOEs are making money, and that thought was with me for a long time till I noticed that that was not the case.
No wonder all other SOEs do not report such achievements as far as I can remember, except for few instances with a little profit margin.
This now should be a challenge to other CEOs and Board Members of other SEOs to pull up their socks and show us what they can do to make the SOEs they serve make money also.
While serving in those institutions, one should remind himself that he is only looking after assets and businesses which are owned by the people of Solomon Islands through their elected government.
It is their tax money and should you not perform to the people’s expectation, then you might as well seek employment somewhere else or create your own.
Profits made from these organizations supposed to assist the government in providing much needed services to it populace. Sadly, this isn’t the case for a long time since independence.
We have shown ourselves how unworthy and incompetent we are to even manage our own affairs and it takes someone outside to turn something we have been struggling over to make money. What a shame!
Thank you Mr Yow and your team once again and keep up the good work.
Jackson Ray
Fulton College
Nadi, Fiji Islands
