Police and FICAC yet to receive report to investigate the issue of $5.7M dividend paid by ATS to ATS Employees Trust

Police and FICAC are yet to receive a report to investigate the issue of the $5.7 million dividend paid by ATS to ATS Employees Trust since 2005.

And as questions continue to be raised on how much the ATS Employees Trust paid out to the staff who are the beneficiaries, the Employees Trust is maintaining that they have nothing to hide.

When we questioned ATS Employees Trust Chairman Jay Singh, he said that he will only answer questions in a press conference in Nadi today.

Fijivillage has received a signed ATS bulletin put up on their notice board on the 28th of September last year where the ATS Company Secretary stated that ATS had made a net profit of $2.27 million for the 2016 financial year and the board had agreed to declare a 50% dividend.

$579,298.55 was paid out in dividend to the government as it has 51 percent shares in ATS while ATS Employees Trust which has 49% shares received $556,580.95 in dividend.

The ATS Company Secretary had said further that assuming if ATS Employees Trust has a full paid beneficiary number of 300, then the total dividend paid per beneficiary should equate to $1,855, however, this amount will vary according to the total number of beneficiaries entitled and the amount declared by the Employees Trustees to their beneficiaries.

Chairman of ATS Employees Trust Jay Singh had then written to the ATS Company Secretary on the 29th of September, 2017, saying that it is not the function of the Company Secretary or CEO to issue bulletins on behalf of the shareholders.

Singh said in the letter that the Employees Trust has beneficiaries and the Trust manages its affairs quite efficiently without any interference.

Singh also said that the ATS Company Secretary had deliberately created a rift amongst the beneficiaries and the other staff, and Singh asked for the ATS bulletin to be removed from the notice board.

ATS Employees Trust Secretary Vili Finau had earlier said that they have nothing to hide however the details on how much money has been paid to the beneficiaries is in their office which is in the ATS compound.

He says they cannot access those details at this stage as they cannot enter the premises.

When asked by Fijivillage to confirm the details on the 5.7 million dividends and the sharing of the money amongst the staff who are beneficiaries, Finau says he cannot give any details on this.

ATS is maintaining that they have only raised the issue and cleared the air about the dividends paid to ATS Employees Trust because the workers were told by the Trust and the union that the Trust has not received dividends.