Rogue C.P.B.L. directors give their side of the story on OYE…
Earlier in the newscast, we reported on the setbacks in the sugar industry due to slow cane deliveries. But in the south, the major bone of contention in the Citrus industry is that the Citrus Growers Association owns fifty-one percent of shares in the Citrus Products of Belize Limited, but they have no control of the company. The CGA has been up in arms at the refusal of Henry Canton, Mike Dunker and Frank Redmond to resign from the board of the Citrus Products of Belize Limited (C.P.B.L.). The CGA expressed this view earlier this week on Open Your Eyes. Well today, representatives from C.P.B.L., Ernest Raymond and Frank Redmond, had their say on our morning show. Redmond was asked about his status with the Committee of Management of the CGA and his current position on the CPBL board.
Frank Redmond, Director, C.P.B.L.
“I do not want to represent people who don’t want me to represent them. In March, after the last Annual General Meeting, about two to three weeks later I got a call from the management of the Citrus Growers Association and they told me that I had been replaced as a director of Citrus Products of Belize Limited. I said well just hang on there are certain procedures that you have to follow. Although they said it was quite legal, well I knew it wasn’t. So I contacted the other directors and said well, this is what I have been told, I have nothing in writing, what is your situation. I suddenly find out that not only were they wishing to replace both myself and the Chairman of the company, Mr. Mike Duncker; but also the Chief Executive Officer as directors, who by way of a contract signed in 2002, before the Caribbean investors ever came on the scene, had to be a director of the Citrus Products of Belize. It’s in his contract. He indicated that if they tried to remove him, he had a contract arrangement and therefore he was entitled to sue. In the investment agreement, it states very clearly that if as a result of any actions by the majority shareholders, the income to the minority—the Caribbean investors—shareholder is reduced or changed, then that has to be paid by the majority shareholder. So if there was a court case and it would be a fine, it would be paid by the Citrus Products of Belize and the Caribbean partners would say hey wait a minute, we would have gotten that in dividends so you, Citrus Growers, have to pay. So along with Mr. Duncker, we decided that we cannot resign. It is not in the interest of citrus growers.”
Redmond says that in order to remove a director, there has to be a special meeting and have a two-thirds majority vote in favour of their removal.
