The last
straw for an angry public was former Premier Kathy Dunderdale’s boldfaced
support for Nalcor following the January 2014 ‘black-outs’, an event now
inscribed in history as Dark NL.
Dunderdale
played defense for three years in an effort to bolster Muskrat Falls. She explained Nalcor’s secrecy as a triumph
of transparency though it was anything but.
Her abuse of the PUB process and fumbling of basic facts about the project
constituted a gross subversion of the truth.
Her integrity
in tatters, Premier Dunderdale was forced to resign.
Against this
background Ken Marshall, the new Chairman of the Nalcor Board, still thought it
a great idea to publish a piece in the Weekend Telegram entitled "Responsible development and oversight go hand in hand". In content and
style it is reminiscent of Dunderdale.
His
exhibition of uncommonly bad judgement could only have been exhibited because
he is assured impunity by a timid and ineffective Premier Tom Marshall. But it speaks volumes of Ed Martin, too, without
whose permission the item would not have been submitted for publication.
How far does
Nalcor’s arrogance extend? How
impervious to a soured public can they be?
Is there no rehabilitation for Nalcor’s nattering Neanderthals? Perhaps they confuse morons and electrons.
If Ken
Marshall were a thoughtful person his first steps, as Chairman, might have been
to apologize for Nalcor’s insouciance, its distain for openness and
transparency, its forgetfulness that the Agency is playing with money that is
not its own.
Marshall puts Messrs. Vardy, Penney, Brown and Hearn in the
crosshairs. But Ken Marshall is no
champion of anything noble. He is an intellectual pygmy in their midst.
Indeed, his lengthy missive does not include a single financial
number with which to bolster his case that Nalcor is the perfect public Agency. The Article is twaddle improved only by its
placement in an esteemed newspaper.
Let me offer a few examples.
Rather than recognize public scrutiny as both a public right
as well as measure of his Agency’s confidence Marshall writes “…the PUB was not
able to make a decision…” on the Muskrat Falls project; a frequent and spurious
charge Dunderdale was fond of making.
She was well aware, as is Marshall, the PUB was given inadequate DG-2
numbers rather than the much later DG-3 estimates given MHI.
Marshall writes that Nalcor’s vision “…is driven by a
competent and extremely capable team at Nalcor, led by CEO Ed Martin, and is
complemented with broad expertise from members of our boards.”
Marshall is not just a suck-hole; he is wrong. Nalcor’s Board contains not one member,
including himself (another cable guy ill-suited to the construction business),
who can boast the expertise demanded by a multi-billion dollar
megaproject. Indeed, from Ed Martin down
the expertise is scarily light, far below the requirements demanded by Mobil on
Hebron, Vale on the smelter project; companies that insist on capability of
international repute.
The Nalcor Chairman speaks of Tom Marshall’s Committee as one
that will “strengthen and formalize the existing oversight for the construction
phase of the project…” Yet he knows the
Oversight Committee, composed of four part-time senior public servants, lacks
expertise and competent technical support and is pure camouflage for Government
inaction.
Tom Marshall’s fake oversight is the very signal that allows Nalcor
to continue the practice of obfuscation under the guise of commercial
sensitivity.
The neophyte Chairman goes on to recite the “…many ways we
report to the public, government and the PUB…”
But, he knows Nalcor cannot measure up to the reporting standards of public
companies like Vale, Rio Tinto, Mobil or Husky.
These companies issue the Quarterly Reports demanded of all public
companies.
Why is that detail significant?
Mr. Marshall ought to know that, when Quarterly Reports are produced they
must contain “Management’s Discussion and Analysis”. According to securities exchange requirements
as well as accounting “best practices”, senior executives are required to
update shareholders as to the status of major projects and initiatives in which
their companies are engaged including cost completion.
Such Reports, according to securities exchange rules, must be
made public within 45 days after a calendar quarter and 90 days after a year
end. Emera and Fortis Inc., both public companies, adhere to these rules.
Nalcor does not.
It refuses to issue Quarterly Reports. It issues only an Annual Report.
And then only barely.
At least since 2011, Nalcor has delayed its Annual Reports for
up to five months after year end.
Why so late?
Likely because by then the House of Assembly is closed and
both Nalcor executives and the Government are spared examination by Opposition
Parties of Nalcor’s activities and spending.
What else?
The 2013 Nalcor Annual Report was released only 11 days
before Nalcor’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Few members of the public had a chance to study its entrails. Nor did the
Nalcor AGM allocate much time for discussion and review of the document.
This is the real picture of Nalcor Energy. Rather than the confident and talented
Agency, Board of Directors or Chairman, whom Ken Marshall would have us believe
is developing Newfoundland and Labrador’s energy warehouse, Nalcor is actually a
glass ceiling of feigned expertise.
Nalcor: open and accountable?
Just as we did Kathy Dunderdale, we laugh in Ken Marshall’s general
direction.
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Related Reading: NALCOR: NO PLACE FOR TRAINING WHEELS
