Page 538 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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When this company search of VITAB was conducted by Price Waterhouse in September last year, what did it find? Mr Berry told the Assembly on 7 December, that is, after Price Waterhouse supposedly carried out this company check:
The directors of VITAB are Dan Kolomanski, Con McMahon and Michael Dowd. It is a public company, and Tony De Domenico can do a search through the ASC company records, if he wants to confirm that.
The Minister was given a chance to correct this information when he was asked a question about the accuracy of his response on 9 December. Unfortunately, he refused to answer the question. So we certainly gave him a chance. Yet on 3 March, many months later, Mr Berry repeated his claim. I quote Mr Berry:
On 7 December I advised the Assembly, and I have just been sent another note from my staff, that the directors of VITAB were Kolomanski, McMahon and Dowd at the time of signing.
The facts are that the directors of VITAB, when the company was registered on 4 August last year and when the contract with ACTTAB was signed, were Daniel Kolomanski, Cornelius McMahon and a company called Oak Ltd, not Michael Dowd. To confirm that the Minister misled the Assembly, the Opposition conducted two company checks of VITAB - one in February and the other yesterday. There has been no change to the directors since VITAB was registered on 4 August 1993.
Madam Speaker, I seek leave to table a company search of Vanuatu government records, which was carried out on 11 April, and a statement from the company that executed that search.
Leave granted.
MRS CARNELL: Proof, Mr Berry, that you misled the Assembly in December last year and in March this year. Even more damning is this fact: When Price Waterhouse conducted the company search, it also found that the directors of VITAB were Kolomanski, McMahon and Oak Ltd. They did not find Michael Dowd's name anywhere on any document, either. Yet Mr Berry persisted by telling the Assembly that Dowd was a director. Minister, what do you have to hide?
Mr Berry has tried to create the impression that VITAB's details were easily accessible, that it was a public company registered in Australia, and that Tony De Domenico could do a search of Australian Securities Commission documents at any time he liked. The facts are that VITAB is a private company. VITAB is registered in Vanuatu, a tax haven, where information is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, by legislation. Mr De Domenico would end up a very old and no wiser man if he spent the rest of his life searching the Australian Securities Commission records for details of VITAB, because the search would be in vain.
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