Kele'a interviews Shoreline whistle-blower, March 18-23 [1]
Thursday, March 24, 2005 - 15:30. Updated on Sunday, December 15, 2013 - 18:50.
The front pages of the Taimi, and the Kele'a this week featured the results of the election, but the Kele'a also ran a story from a whistleblower who used to work for Shoreline.
A thank you message from the three Tongatapu People's Representatives, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, ‘Isileli Pulu and Feleti Sevele, featured prominently on the front page of the Kele'a with photographs of the People's Representatives.
The Taimi called the election a big victory for the Democrats, which they said was led by the three Tongatapu PRs.
The Talaki front page headline featured the four new appointed ministers and a small boxed story on the result of the election.
Scoop
The Kele'a this week though came out with a scoop - an interview by Tavake Fusimalohi of Piveni Piukala, the Manager of the computer division of the Shoreline.
The interview probed into why Piveni resigned and his revelation of the bad relationship between the Tongan staff and, Sefo and Soane Ramanlal, whom the story referred to as the "Indian princes"
Piveni told of how Sefo threatened to fire him because Piveni did not offer him a chair to sit on. It happened about October last year but he decided to stick it out until the completion of his contract.
Piveni also told of a big mess up with the billing system of Shoreline, and how he worked tirelessly with other technicians to get the thing to work properly, but there was just no appreciation from the management executives. Following their success in fixing the billing system it was essential for him to travel to the USA to negotiate for the acquiring of a Source Code with a quoted price of about $100,000. Piveni said he was given a pitiful travel allowance of $US100 a day and he was booked into a $US95 hotel.
Piveni went on to say that the first Tonfon GSM system failed, and therefore a new system was bought in. He said that the two "Indian Princes" lied to the Tongan Prince that the new system was an expansion, when it was to replace the failed system. Piveni said that at this stage they had already spent about $10 to $15 million, and the system was supposed to be in operation last December, and it was now March and it was still not working. Piveni said they were not consulted before the new system was bought and he was disappointed because he was certain that more money would have to be spent to get the new system to work.
Piveni said that since he left, others had been sacked for leaking information about the high salaries of the executive. While the technical experts were paid peanuts, they had brought in Palangis with very high salaries, but he doubted if these Palangis could fix the problems. He said that they brought in someone from Australia at $US1200 per day excluding airfares and accommodation and a pre payment of $US20,000.
Piveni said that since the executives knew he was going to leave they had offered to increase his salary to $100,000 but he had enough and he was leaving with his family for Fiji.
Piveni said that Shoreline was trying to make money from its power generation to salvage Tonfon and to finance the millionaire life styles of the executives. He said that before the rise in the price of oil in November Shoreline payment for fuel was between $700,000 and $800,000 per month. At the same time the revenue collected from the public was $1.7 million per month. Since the rise in the price of electricity, the spending on fuel went up to between $900,000 and $1 million, and Shoreline was collecting $2 million per month.
Piveni said that the high salaries of Soane Ramanlal and ‘Emeline Tuita that were revealed in the Kele...a were correct, but in fact they sometimes get more than that. He said that in addition Soane gets $12,615.38 every two weeks, transferred to his bank account, he is also paid a $40,000 consultation fee, and an open ended entertainment allowance which may run into $200,000 every six months.
He felt that the Crown Prince had to do something because the three entities involved are the people, the "Ramanlala Princes" and the Royal Family. One of these three had to bear the consequences, and the Crown prince would decide. If he treasured the affection of the people to the Royal Family he had to do something about the Indian Princes.
Piveni estimated the loan from China to be about $100 million, and $35 million was used to repay ANZ and the rest for the running of the operation and to pay for their expensive life style, reported the Kele'a