Cook Islands residents living on the island of Aitutaki are said to be worried by the sacking of their local power station board and concerned for its future.
The three members of the Aitutaki Power Station Authority board were removed last month by the Cook Islands Investment Corporation, which is yet to explain why.
However, the opposition coalition and the Aitutaki Mayor, Teupo'o Bishop, believe the board was sacked because the directors resisted demands from the corporation to release funds held in its reserves.
Our correspondent in Rarotonga, Florence Syme Buchanan, told Amelia Langford there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
Aitutaki, Cook Islands
Photo: Ewan Smith
Transcript
FLORENCE SYME-BUCHANAN: My understanding is that another board will be appointed and they are changing the financial structure - this is the Investment Corporation's changes to the financial structure to the Aitutaki Power Station so that it can more easily access the funds that have been accumulated there. At the moment the Aitutaki Power Station Board is required to sign off, and agree by resolution and then the Ministry of Finance then co-signs on any funds that are released from the power station. From the media release from the Investment Corporation it seems they are going to change all that so that these funds can be more easily accessed.
AMELIA LANGFORD: So what does the ex-chair of the board make of this situation?
FSB: He is extremely disappointed because he says that the Investment Corporation has already proven its inability to manage anything to do with the Aitutaki Power Station in an effective way. Basically what the Aitutaki Power Station former chairman, Allan Mills, is saying, is that Aitutaki Power Station has operated really well. It operates on money that the Aitutaki people pay for their power. It's pensioners, it is growers, it is business people, it is the less well off, it is the business people who employ the locals everyone pays for their power and this money goes into Aitutaki Power Station. As such because it is Aitutaki money it should remain on Aitutaki and it should be Aitutaki that governs how it is spent.
AL: S that is the crux of the matter here, isn't it?
FSB: That is basically the crux of the matter. They want the ability to be able to control how the money is spent, rather than central government in Rarotonga saying it should be spent this way when bureaucrats in Rarotonga don't necessarily know what the priorities and the needs are in Aitutaki.
AL: And the residents of the island who are paying this money are they concerned about what is going to happen in the future?
FSB: My understanding from the people who have contacted me and from feedback is that there is widespread disappointment, there is widespread concern about the way the Cook Islands Investment Corporation, here in central government in Rarotonga, is trying to take control of the Aitutaki Power Station. They're extremely disappointed that the government hasn't fulfilled its promise given that the Aitutaki Power Station would be developed into a state owned enterprise, a stand alone entity in which the Aitutaki people would have some control over and ownership of.
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