By JULIA DAIA BORE
PNG Power Ltd (PPL) Board chairman Sari Maso yesterday described a report calling for the removal of the company’s CEO Patrick Mara as not authentic.
The KPMG report was being circulated by the PNG Trade Union Congress, who used it to say that the report vindicated their claim that Mr Mara was unwanted by the PNG Power staff and should be replaced.
But Mr Maso said the report being circulated was not the PPL Board report.
When shown the report at the press conference, he flatly denied it was the KPMG report to the PPL Board without even picking it up to look at it.
He said the report was the property of the PPL Board and not for public consumption.
He said the board sent excerpts of that report to the two PPL unions, which he said were the relevant aggrieved parties that raised the matter in their dispute in July.
However, the unions in their recent walk-off had maintained that they should have been furnished the report in its entirety, as the report was brought about as a result of their grievances.
Asked what was not in the report that the unions still wanted, Mr Maso said:
“I’m not too sure. But all I can say is that the document was prepared for the board.
“We had perused it and we are quite comfortable with the sections that we have advised the unions regarding the areas of their concern,” Mr Maso said.
He added that the report, which had been circulated to the media, might have been the KPMG’s internal report which was not final and “should not have surfaced”.
He maintained that the hiring and removal of Mr Mara was not an industrial issue, and Mr Mara would continue to transform the organisation (PPL) from a public service culture to a competitive commercial culture.
He urged workers to accept the change and move with the company.
“At the end of the changes, the benefits will come to the workers,” Mr Maso said.
The report being circulated calls for the sacking of Mr Mara and other members of the PNG Power executives.
It is understood KPMC human resources consultant Zemo Apo, who authored the report, spoke extensively to national staff at the power company.
His report said, Mr Mara should be removed, because he had a personality problem, had no respect for his senior national managers, cannot listen, and was stubborn.