EXPRESS The
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Locally owned and proudly independent
Ending the year on a high Tableland junior rugby union players prepare to hurl their coach, and Highlanders president, Michael Barlow into Lake Tinaroo at the club’s end of season presentations on Saturday.
FULL STORY page 26
Still no money
Further extension for Kagara mine administrators By Ryan Groube
T
he administrators of failed miner Kagara have been granted a further extension by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to meet financial reporting obligations. The extension means that about 400 creditors will have to wait until the end of January, 2014 to see how much money is in the bank and how much of the estimated $100 million they are owed can be recouped. Member for Kennedy Bob Katter is furious that disclosing this information has dragged, given that the company has been in administration since April 2012. Last week, Mr Katter had a phone hook-up with ASIC chair Greg Medcraft urging the “veil of secrecy” be lifted and financial information provided to creditors. “This essential information is vital for the 450 creditors and the
350 wage earners, most of whom have been financially destitute by the collapse of Kagara,” he said. “It may have been possible for the company to be pulled back into economic viability, but without this information the productive resource will be lost to Australia, wages will be lost or delayed indefinitely and of the approximately 400 creditors, most will be financially destroyed.” A spokesperson from ASIC refuted Mr Katter’s claims that ASIC was withholding information. “Members of the public can search ASIC’s databases for information about the administration as they could with any other matter,” the spokesperson said. “Creditors seeking information about Karaga’s administration should contact the administrator of Kagara, FTI. It is their role is to investigate and report to creditors on the company’s business, property, affairs and financial circumstances. “ASIC understands Kagara’s predicament is a serious matter which has had devastating consequences for creditors.”
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Mr Katter said his office had been inundated with complaints from creditors about the lack of progress and the lack of information. “Every day that goes by is a day that the administrators are getting paid which means there is less money for the creditors. As soon as this gets resolved those payments stop,” he said. “What we have is between 300 and 400 Tableland businesses that are dying a slow and agonising death and a company as administrators that won’t give anyone any information. “It is essential that ASIC provide surety that the timetable for administration won’t be unduly prolonged.” A strong Australian dollar, falling commodity prices and high labour costs resulted in Kagara reporting a $48.9 million loss for the first half of the 2012 financial year. On April 29, 2012, the Perthbased company appointed Taylor Woodings as voluntary administrators with 216 staff being made redundant – the majority from the company’s operations on the Tableland.
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