Four of the six directors of Tonga Power Ltd. have resigned in the last month with Tsutomu Nakao and Warren Moyes the latest to hand in their resignations on Tuesday 14 June.

In confirming his resignation Tsutomu Nakao said he did not wish to comment on the reasons for his voluntary departure. "I wish the new board well in their endeavours," he said yesterday.

It follows the recent resignations of Board Chairman David Wright, and board member Dr Feleti Sevele.

Carl Sanft was appointed as an interim chairman of the board on Tuesday, along with Lisiate Guttenbeil of Vava’u who are all that is left of the board this week, and they are joined by a newly appointed board member George Koloamatangi.

Carl Sanft confirmed his appointment as interim chairperson, but did not want to comment on the resignations or on the direction of the future board.

Best performing utility

The resignations largely dismantle a board that has run one of the most successful state owned enterprises in the South Pacific islands.

TPL was established in 2008 by the government of Tonga to acquire the electricity generation and distribution assets of the Shoreline Group Limited.
Tsutomu Nakao joined the board in 2009 .

The Tonga Power Ltd. was reported to be the best performing utility in a recent survey of state-owned enterprises the in five South Pacific islands countries. The report "Finding Balance 2011, Benchmarking the Performance of State-Owned Enterprises in Fiji, Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Tonga," noted the success of TPL.

"SOEs that have performed well are those with robust governance arrangements, strong commercial orientation, and similar performance incentives as those found in private enterprises. These SOEs have unambiguous commercial mandates, hard budget constraints, and directors who are held accountable for commercial performance. In the Pacific, there are few SOEs that have this profile, but much can be learned from those that do. Two such SOEs are the national Bank of Vanuatu (nBV) and Tonga Power Limited (TPL). Both of these SOEs operate with clear commercial principles and actively seek increased private sector participation to support their growth. Their experiences illustrate how commercially focused governance practices can quickly improve SOE performance," the report stated.