Weakness in performance led to voluntary resignation: LTA chairman on Piantedosi

Former Land Transport Authority (LTA) chief executive Carmine Piantedosi resigned when notified of several deficiencies in his performance, revealed Board chairman Vijay Maharaj. At a press conference in Suva yesterday, Mr Maharaj expressed surprise at a reports in which the ex-chief claimed he was forced to leave the role.

“When we first appointed him, we wanted a complete change in the culture and the way things were done at LTA and this was why we brought somebody from outside,” he said.

“His performance was under continuous review by the Board and there were certain areas where he had difficulties.

“The Board had collectively raised certain issues with him – that there were certain areas in his performance which were not up to the standard of the Board,” Mr Maharaj said. Mr Maharaj said the Board held “cordial” discussions with Mr Piantedosi prior to his resignation to inform him of the shortcomings. He said the resignation was accepted on the same day it was handed in, reading out both the resignation and acceptance letters at the conference.

“It was not coercion. It was a free and fair discussion and it was a voluntary termination (from his end),” he said.

Over the last six months, the chairman said: “LTA’s Board identified issues in 22 separate audit reports in which the former chief executive failed to take action to rectify.

“We were trying to improve the image of LTA, there was a lot of corruption and all that about a year ago or so before he joined us.

“We wanted to actually stamp out that corruption and we wanted him to carry out the good work that we had done.

“We’ve got about 22 internal audit reports and that actually showed that he ought to have taken action.” Mr Piantedosi was on his way to Australia when this edition went to press and was not available for immediate comment.