Council loan raises fears

Public scrutiny of a major New Plymouth District Council investment could soon be a thing of the past, watchdog Keith Allum fears.

Mr Allum says recently announced changes at Tasman Farms mark "the final closing of the doors on the operation of TIML and the last chink of light on community funds".

The Tasmanian dairying operation is 75 per cent owned by the council's investment arm, TIML, and represents a large chunk of its total investments.

Tasman Farms recently announced it would be getting a cash boost of up to $12m of TIML money, half through a loan and half through a share offer.

But the council's loan is conditional on the company de-listing from the Unlisted share exchange, which means annual reports will no longer have to be publicly released. It is also proposed to raise the minimum shareholding in the company to 1000 shares.

Yesterday, TIML chief executive Mike Trousselot told the Taranaki Daily News the two changes were about saving money, not cutting off public access to information.

"We're not trying to hide anything," he said.

"The only change is the minimum shareholding has gone to 1000 to reduce the costs of managing a larger share register. Anybody who wanted to could purchase the shares and access the information. Six monthly reports into TIML will continue to be released to the media."

"We're quite happy to communicate as much as we can with the public and we would encourage people like Keith to come and talk to us."

But Mr Allum, who bought 500 Tasman Farms shares two years ago for the sole purpose of monitoring the company's performance, isn't convinced.

He is worried by the changes and said he believes TIML "don't want the public, us, to scrutinise them too much".

He said he would not buy another 500 shares in the company because once the company was de-listed he would have no public way of selling his shares.

He has already lost money on his investment – his original 500 shares cost $1 each but they are now trading publicly for just 75c as the company struggled through a tough year in the Tasmanian dairy industry.

"Basically it's cost me $125 to monitor them," Mr Allum said.

"The principle I'm concerned about is it's community money and it should be transparent.

"It should be open for public scrutiny because it's public money.

"Once it's de-listed nobody will be able to access any information. It will be totally opaque."

- © Fairfax NZ News