By
MALUM NALU
A united Coffee Industry Corporation board of
directors yesterday brushed aside Agriculture Minister Tommy Tomscoll’s
dismissal of their recommendation to suspend chief executive officer Navi Anis
as “biased, misleading and unsatisfactory”.
Anis, however, told The National from Goroka last night that he had nothing to hide and
there was “no shred of evidence” whatsoever about mismanagement, misuse of
public funds, and official corruption under his management.
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| Anis…in the hot seat
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Tomscoll, in an eight-page response to the board,
directed that he would not entertain its recommendations to suspend Anis
because of lack of hard evidence.
His response was published in media, irking the
board.
Board chairman Patrick Komba, in a statement
surprisingly sent from the office of CIC general manager – industry operations
Chris Gimbol, said the decision to recommend Anis was made in November 2012
after serious allegations of mismanagement, misuse of public funds, and counts
of official corruption including non-performance.
“We, the board, asked Mr Navi Anis to show cause on
some serious allegations involving millions of kina, which he did unofficially,
but the board unanimously moved that the explanation from the CEO was no
satisfactory, warranting investigations, and therefore we recommended for
suspension for external investigations to take place,” he said.
Komba claimed Tomscoll was misled by Anis, and
instead of talking with the board, the minister had used the same internal
report by Anis verbatim.
“It is almost word-for-word,” he said.
“The contents of the minister’s response are the
same as the content we received from Mr Navi Anis in his show-cause submission.
“We are surprised the minister chooses not to have
anything to do with the board, as stipulated under various legislations, and
allows himself to be misled by one person who is alleged of mismanagement,
abuse of public funds, and counts of official corruption.”
Koma said as far as the board was concerned, its decision
of November 23, 2012, recommending the suspension of Anis still stood and he
was not cleared as stated in the media by Tomscoll.
Navis said all correspondence from the board to him
and vice-versa had been given to Tomscoll to make a decision.
“I don’t know if some of these board members read
the board papers we prepare for them or they just come to meetings to collect
their allowance,” he said.
“In terms of financial accountability, our accounts
are fully audited by the Auditor General’s Office.
“Auditors have not found any instance of financial
mismanagement or misappropriation.
“There is no shred of evidence about financial
mismanagement, and I deny the allegations by the board outright.”
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