Page 576 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 10 February 2009
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The shareholders failed. On page 4 the report then goes on to say:
Audit acknowledges that, in the face of considerable uncertainty, there were significant efforts by the Board, the management and staff of Rhodium directed towards the successful operation of Rhodium.
So we had the board, the management and the staff all trying to do their best, but they were left high and dry by the shareholders—the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister. They did not know what was required of them or where they were to go because nobody would tell them. On page 8 the report goes on to say:
Rhodium has been facing uncertainty since its establishment due to a lack of clear strategic direction from the Shareholders.
So from the very start Rhodium was nobbled. If the shareholders, the Labor government, had wanted it to go ahead, it was nobbled at the start. If they had wanted to sell it, it was nobbled at the start. This litany of mistakes can only rest at the feet of the shareholders, that is, the government.
On page 11 the report goes on to say that in accordance with section 18 of the Auditor-General Act 1996 a draft report was sent, and the report lists the respondents. The responses are interesting. The report summarises in dot point format the response of the former CEO of Rhodium. It states:
• with a new CEO, and a shareholder-appointed Board who had not been effectively briefed …
Another dot point states:
• attempting to rationalise competing demands from management, staff, Board, Shareholders, and ACT Government departments—
There was no plan and no objective. If you do not plan, if you do not know where you are going, inevitably you certainly cannot achieve anything.
On page 25, in the key findings, the report goes on to say:
• Rhodium has been facing uncertainty since its establishment due to a lack of clear strategic direction from the Shareholders.
I could read all the references, but I will not. The shareholders are mentioned on 48 different occasions in the report. For instance, the shareholders had things that they had to do under the law, and one of those things was to approve the draft business plan.
Paragraph 3.18 on page 29 states:
The Board advised that the Shareholders had not approved the draft business plan—
So the board and the management and the staff were trying to get ahead and the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister sat on their hands. Rhodium could not do its job because the government did not let it.
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