Nasfund posts K50,000 reward

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday, June 6th 2011

NASFUND Ltd, the country’s largest private sector superannuation fund, has denied an allegation against its joint-chief executive officer Rod Mitchell was involved in the issuance of K125 million bonds to projects in the Kokopo electorate, East New Britain.
The Nasfund board had also offered a K50,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and prosecution of the author of the articles and the persons responsible for publishing the allegation on the blog or any general media.
In past weeks, an email had been circulated from an anonymous whistleblower on the website PNG Blogs alleging that Mitchell and his board were covering up the illegal issuance of K125 million bonds.
“The questions still remains what happened to those funds? Who got them? Did the pollies pocket any? If it is an illegal bond issue, is the state obliged to repay the money? (It appears the state is not liable to repay the money to Nasfund).
“This leaves Nasfund out of pocket to the tune
of K125 million.
“The question is did the board of Nasfund approve this bond issue? Where are the board papers?
“How can the board approve a bond issue that is outside the public finance management system, outside central bank requirements and outside the Department of Treasury processes as sanctioned by the state solicitor, and finally approved by cabinet?
“How can Rod possibly pull this deal off where his own company walked away with K12.5 million in broking fees (for doing next to nothing) without proper board scrutiny or sanction?”
Nasfund said the board “is aware of various articles posted on the blog site, and now being circulated via email which are factually incorrect, malicious in nature and defamatory”.
“The articles are not only a serious attack on the integrity of the Nasfund board and management, it is a mischievous attempt to create confusion and instability among the contributors of Nasfund,” it said.