01/14/2024
DAILY POST ARTICLE ON VANUATU’S SHIPPING REGISTRY ISSUE.
The article published in the Daily Post on Friday January 12th, 2024 is grossly misinforming the public in claiming in its headlines that the resolution of the shipping registry and the jack mackerel rights dispute is in the US Courts.
The Jack Mackerel Fishery dispute was before the London courts and has been resolved in accordance with Council of Ministers decisions and directives.
That Jack Mackerel issue was uncovered by Mr. Saade Maklhouf who as Special Envoy appointed by Former DPM and Minister for Foreign Affairs – Jotham Napat attended the SPRFMO meeting in Manta, Ecuador on 7th February 2023 to 17th February 2023 with instructions to report his findings back to the Government.
Investigations revealed that Vanuatu had been allocated a quota for the jack mackerel fishery of over 40,000 tonnes for 2023.
As the country had just gone thru two serious cyclones in Cyclone Kevin and Judy which caused considerable disastrous impacts on Vanuatu, Special Envoy Makhlouf was requested by former Minister Napat and Minister Nako Natuman as Minister for Fisheries at that time to arrange sales of the jack mackerel quota and send the monies back to the Government account provided to him in order to help the Government with disaster relief at the earliest opportunity.
Mr. Makhlouf arranged a buyer for Vanuatu’s jack mackerel quota however before the sale was able to be completed, objections was raised by parties already involved in past sales of Vanuatu’s annual jack mackerel quota which included an injunction in the courts of London.
Mr. Makhlouf was then instructed by the Government through a Council of Ministers decision to get the quota back for Vanuatu as it was considered a national asset. Mr. Makhlouf then proceeded to hire lawyers in London at his own expense to defend the Republic of Vanuatu and fight the case in London.
The case was finally settled out of court and the reasons for that were that even though it was felt that Vanuatu had a very strong case were the procrastination and lack of timely cooperation from the Vanuatu government in providing timely responses to the questions raised by Vanuatu’s lawyers in London which hampered the case.
Ultimately, the Government even though it had a very strong case finally resolved through Council of Ministers to settle out of court by agreeing to share its quota for a further 10 years with the parties who had been involved with selling the quota in the past.
Investigations during the pursuance of the jack mackerel case identified many irregularities in the arrangements for the sale of Vanuatu’s Jack Mackerel quota and resulted in a criminal complaint lodged by former DPM and Foreign Minister Jotham Napat with the Police.
Investigations revealed that Vanuatu had not benefited from the sale of its Jack Mackerel quota been losing over US$10 million or over Vt 1billion annually from the sale of its jack mackerel quota for over 10 years and has never received any monies from the sale of Vanuatu’s Jack Mackerel quota.
Investigations have revealed that an agreement had been signed with a Panamanian company signed by a local company – Tuna Fishing Limited for the sale of Vanuatu’s quota did not receive Council of Ministers approval nor had it passed through the Government’s Central Tenders Board.
In statements to the London Courts, the Director General of Ministry of Finance has confirmed that the Ministry of Finance could not find any records of payments being made to government from the sale of Vanuatu’s Jack Mackerel quota and the Director General of Fisheries has confirmed that the Ministry was not aware of the agreements nor the sales of the jack mackerel quota.
The agreement has been declared in advice from the Attorney General to have not followed the due process and therefore deemed illegal and therefore null and void and however Vanuatu as a country has lost over tens of billions of vatu from this arrangement.
Police investigations were commenced at the end of last year and the case with another civil case relating to the same matter is supposed to go to the Department of Public Prosecutions however how and when it proceeds to trial is very much in the hands of the Police, the Public Prosecutor, and the Courts.
Investigations have also revealed that a COM decision was taken on 14th October 2016 for legal proceedings to be commenced against Tuna Fishing to recover outstandings owed to Government of over VT400 million. Letters were sent from the Minister of Fisheries at that time – Honorable Matai Seremaiah Nawalu to the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Police and the Ombudsman however it is believed that the matter is still outstanding.
What Is certain is that the large and significant monetary benefits that Vanuatu as a country has lost or missed out on over passed years will raise many questions internationally on the ability of Vanuatu’s national institutions including the Government to protect its national assets for the interest of the country and its people and there is no doubt that certain countries and agencies are monitoring the matter as it will reveal to how far corruption reaches into Vanuatu’s national institutions.
Vanuatu will finally start receiving monetary benefits from its jack mackerel quota for 2023 and in accordance with its share of the quota as agreed in the out of court settlement agreement, Vanuatu will receive over US$ 5 million or Vt500 million within the next few weeks and in the next couple of months, will receive again roughly the same amount from the sale of the 2024 jack mackerel quota. Monies which it has never received before from this particular asset.
All this has been achieved through the invaluable efforts and expense of Mr. Saade Makhlouf – Vanuatu’s former Special Envoy to the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Organization working in cooperation with the former Minister for Foreign Affair – Honorale Jotham Napat Nauka, the Minister of Fisheries – Honorable Nako Natuman, the Minister of Finance – Honorable John Salong, the former Prime Minister – Ishmael Kalsakau and the current and previous governments.
Mr. Makhlouf has been appointed as Government Agent for sale of Vanuatu’s Fisheries quotas as approved in accordance with proper process by the Government Central Tenders Board and endorsed by the Council of Ministers.
The inability of the media to obtain, cross check and publish accurate information to properly inform the public is a concerning trend. The lack of attempted correction of such reports from the institutions and people in the know is also an equally concerning trend and reflects a bias towards personal interests and private agendas.
The media is one of the most important pillars in society and failure to do its job properly can have far reaching consequences.
Government institutions, its elected and appointed leaders and its officers are mandated by law to protect the State and its assets for the benefit of the country and its people. To do otherwise is a breach of the leadership code and the obligations mandated by election and/or appointment into positions of authority.
