25 Mar 2011

Cooks bill to purge Toa fuel farm saga

6:57 am on 25 March 2011

An independent Cook Islands MP has drafted a bill to legislate the contract for the failed Toa fuel farm out of existence.

The failed buy-out left the government having to pay a settlement, which the then Prime Minister said was due to poor management.

Our correspondent, Florence Syme-Buchanan, says the deal will end up costing the government more than 7 million US dollars.

"Independent MP Norman George is contending that the Government can't afford to waste any more time and must make moves now to legislate this contract out of existence and to protect the country from future mistake like this, establish a mechanism which would protect the government and taxpayers from ill-conceived, badly researched deals and mistakes that have the potential to be very costly to the country. What he's said is that there is an economic strain the country is experiencing right now, and why is the government dragging its feet on this."