Government Borrowing

I READ with interest, that government has been advised by the Chief Economist for the ANZ Bank, Paul Gruenwald, that they reduce their borrowings which is 73 per cent, from the Fiji National Provident Fund (FT 8/3). Even more interesting and disturbing is, Mr Barry Whiteside, Governor of Reserve Bank of Fiji, stating that “FNPF was the only willing purchaser, with the commercial banks shying away”.

As far as I am aware, the Fiji National Provident Fund is not a commercial bank, but a superannuation fund that was specifically formed to take care of people after they retired, until their death.

So, with the above in mind, perhaps Mr Whiteside and the FNPF Board might like to explain this anomaly to the members and we pensioners who are about to have our pensions drastically cut, how and why FNPF is willing to lend this high percentage to the government, while commercial banks are not?

Talei Burness
Suva

IMPORTANT HEALTH INFORMATION

Do you have feelings of inadequacy?

Do you suffer from shyness?

Do you sometimes wish you were more assertive?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist about Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cabernet Sauvignon is the safe, natural way to feel better and more confident about yourself and your actions. It can help ease you out of your shyness and let you tell the world that you’re ready and willing to do just about anything.

You will notice the benefits of Cabernet Sauvignon almost immediately and, with a regimen of regular doses, you can overcome any obstacles that prevent you from living the life you want to live.

Shyness and awkwardness will be a thing of the past and you will discover many talents you never knew you had.

Stop hiding and start living.

Cabernet Sauvignon may not be right for everyone. Women who are pregnant or nursing should not use it. However, women who wouldn’t mind nursing or becoming pregnant are encouraged to try it..

Side effects may include: dizziness, nausea, vomiting, incarceration, loss of motor control, loss of clothing, loss of money, loss of virginity, delusions of grandeur, table dancing, headache, dehydration, dry mouth, and a desire to sing Karaoke and play all-night rounds of Strip Poker, Truth Or Dare, and Naked Twister.

WARNINGS:

* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may make you think you are whispering when you are not.

* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.

* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may cause you to think you can sing.

* The consumption of Cabernet Sauvignon may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.

Please feel free to share this important information with as many as you feel may benefit!

Now just imagine what you could achieve with a good Shiraz.

Tell the Truth Dave


MORE QUESTIONS FOR FTHF DAVE.

IS IT TRUE, that you have made so many flight crew redundant you now do not have enough crew for domestic schedules to run on time ?

IS IT TRUE, that due to charter costs, hotel costs, shortage of flight crews and disrupted international schedules Air Pacific under your mismanagement made a loss of TWENTY ONE MILLION Dollars during the peak income periods of December and January. Was it December , January, both or neither, or is it a loss being carried forward to the next financial year to further confuse matters?

IS IT TRUE, You used the refund from Boeing for cancelled aircraft, to mislead the public of Fiji about losses you made last year.?

IS IT TRUE, that you are desperately seeking to employ a operations manager you can pass the blame for all your mismanagement to.?

IS IT TRUE, that Frank finally realised that you are not the man for the job you were given, but you have been saved by your Minister from being placed in the ejection seat.

IS IT TRUE, we the pensioners of Fiji have no chance of ever getting our FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS BACK ? Is it also true Air Pacific are currently in a dire financial position, thanks to your non performance ?

Dave the Destroyer

Dave the Destroyer  like the airline he is systematically destroying has been stretched too far.

Ask the passengers who were not told of the delay of their flight to Melbourne and 12 hours later were flown to Brisbane, they will NEVER fly with Air Pacific again. Ask the locals who now make bookings on Pacific Blue instead of Air Pacific because the local airline is so unreliable.

What will happen when, under the recommendations of Bob Carr, Australia lifts its travel bans. Will we see the top guns sitting around the airport for hours? or days?. Of course not , it will not be tolerated.

Why then does government continue to allow visitors who are so important to our economy to be treated in this manner.

FTHF Dave publicly claimed the credit for increased visitors in 2011, (which in fact was attributable to the monies spent by government and the tourism sector promotions) will he accept the blame for the decrease in 2012.

FNPF did not carry out due diligence of Air Pacific or its management before GIVING them $400 million of pensioners money.

Frank has been FOOLED, he has been led to believe new Airbus aircraft will solve the problems, they will not, they may even increase them, if Dave the Destroyer is still in charge.

Aircraft Don’t Run an Airline Frank, management does, its all about GOOD management.

PLEASE Frank, Please give the pensioners back their four hundred million dollars.

NEW FNPF Pensioners Survival Program

You’re a sick senior citizen and the government says there is no nursing home available for you. So what do you do?

Our plan gives anyone 65 years or older a gun and 4 bullets. You are allowed to shoot four Politicians.

Of course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get three meals a day, a roof over your head and free medical treatment.

As an added bonus, your kids can come and visit you as often as they do now.

And who will be paying for all of this? It’s the same government that just told you that you they cannot afford for you to have a decent pension.
Plus, and because you are a prisoner, you don’t have to pay any income taxes anymore.

Airbus’s secret past…. Economist June 12th 2003

Questions have been asked why Air Pacific is being involved in further debt by purchasing Airbus aircraft instead of leasing aircraft. Could the answer be in the following article. It would seem that Airbus in the past have paid commissions either directly or indirectly to purchasers of their aircraft. Who was involved in the Air Pacific decision, who in Air Pacific and government were consulted, who is to be held accountable for the fact that delivery is now imminent yet no flight crew, or engineers have commenced receiving training. Who will be held accountable if Air Pacific collapses as Sabena Airlines did after their purchase of Airbus aircraft for their airline. Can someone please give us an answer.

One of the reasons for all the flight delays and cancellations is FTHF Dave has laid out the flight schedules but has not scheduled the crews that fly the aircraft. Hence delays and cancellations… All due to Grandstanding for his Minister instead of good management practices….Could Air Pacific be heading for collapse under FTHF Dave’s mismanagement??

The following is an extract from: Airbus’s secret past.
Economist June 12th 2003

There are police forces which have shown rather more resolve and initiative than the CBI. One important case establishes that Airbus has paid “commissions” to individuals hiding behind shell companies in jurisdictions where ownership of companies is not a matter of public record, and where strict bank secrecy applies.
Airbus’s first big sale in North America was a $1.5 billion deal, signed in 1988, to sell 34 aircraft to the then state-owned Air Canada. The middleman was Karlheinz Schreiber, a German-Canadian with connections to politicians in Germany and Canada. Mr Schreiber emerged as a figure in the financing scandal that engulfed Germany’s Christian Democrat party and its top politician, Helmut Kohl, a former chancellor, in the late 1990s.
In August 1999 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, acting on a German arrest warrant, nabbed Mr Schreiber. In 2000, Mr Schreiber was charged in Germany with tax evasion on money he had received for the Airbus transaction and other deals. The Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German daily, has supplied a copy of Mr Schreiber’s indictment to The Economist. According to this document, Airbus signed a consultancy contract (amended four times) with International Aircraft Leasing (IAL) in March 1985. IAL, which was to help with the Air Canada deal, was a shell company based in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, and a subsidiary of another Liechtenstein-registered shell, Kensington Anstalt.
According to the indictment, between September 30th 1988 and October 21st 1993 (ie, as Air Canada took delivery of Airbus planes), Airbus paid a total of $22,540,000 in “commissions” to IAL. $10,867,000 was paid into IAL’s account number 235.972.037 at the Verwaltungs-und Privat-Bank in Vaduz and $11,673,000 into IAL’s account number 18.679.4 at Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) in Zurich. During extradition proceedings against Mr Schreiber in 1999, Airbus admitted to these payments. In October 2000 Mr Schreiber won a suspension of execution of his case.The court ruled that IAL belonged to Mr Schreiber, but also that, to the extent that Mr Schreiber had paid out the Airbus “commissions” as Schmiergelder (“grease monies”), these payments could be tax deductible. Mr Schreiber’s German tax lawyer later told the court: “Schmiergelder were not openly paid to the ‘greased’ person by [Airbus]. It was through third persons to make reception anonymous and the Schmiergelder unrecognisable as such.”
So who got the commissions? After years of police investigations in at least five
jurisdictions, it is still not clear. According to “The Last Amigo”, a well-researched book on the affair by Harvey Cashore and Stevie Cameron, both Canadian journalists, a lot was withdrawn in cash. Mr Cashore, a producer on “the fifth estate”, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s main investigative programme, says that Mr Schreiber’s bank records and diaries showed that he usually followed a simple formula for dividing up the money: half for Canadians and half for Europeans.
The book alleges that there may have been a smaller scam within the bigger scam: an Airbus employee may have got some of the money. Some of the money was transferred into sub-accounts at SBC in Zurich. One of the sub-accounts, code-named “Stewardess”, received as much as one-eighth of the commissions. The book suggests that this account was intended for Stuart Iddles, Airbus’s senior vice-president from 1986 to 1994.

Questions for FTHF Dave

Crushed by his own mismanagement ?

Fast Talking High Flying Dave’s Window of Opportunity is getting SMALLER 

NEWSFLASH: Air Pacific has chartered an aircraft from Tonga so they can meet passenger commitments.. Question is why can we not lease available aircraft to service our essential routes?. Is it because commissions are not paid on leased aircraft. ?

NEWSFLASH: It is rumoured FTHF Dave has been banned from entry into Australia, does this mean that Qantas representatives will have to travel to Fiji to listen to his BS or will they keep a safe distance in case it is contagious ??? 

  1. How can you spare time speaking at a seminar in Suva, when Pacific Sun and Air Pacific Aircraft are not meeting flight schedules. Should you not put your own business in order before trying to confuse the police force.
  2. Did the operating income improvement last year include monies paid to Air Pacific by Boeing.
  3. Is Air Pacific currently financially solvent and in a position to make the payments for the purchase of Airbus Aircraft.
  4. How can you lecture on Teamwork when the morale at Air Pacific is so poor under your management.
  5. Do you REALLY know what you are doing and is the Fiji Pensioners $400 Million Dollars safe and secure ???