Firm sold after PNG fails to pay
A Wellington company that struggled for years to recover more than $600,000 it was owed by the Papua New Guinea Government has been sold.
Evaluation Consult was bought by Evalstars, which is an associated company with the same director, after Evaluation was put into liquidation and receivership in March.
The liquidation followed an application by the Inland Revenue Department in relation to more than $685,000 in unpaid taxes.
The company won a court case in 2015 to recover $600,000 from the PNG government for work on a sustainable-development policy.
It was approached by the PNG government in 2014 to support a development plan.
However, in December 2015, Evaluation pulled out of the project because the PNG Government had stopped paying its invoices.
Since then, the company has been trying to claw back the money it is owed.
After winning a court case to recover the money, the company was backed by New Zealand Foreign Affairs and Trade officials, while then foreign affairs minister Murray McCully raised the issue on a visit to Port Moresby.
As of March 2017, Evaluation had managed to get $315,000 back.
The latest receiver’s report, dated May 31, says the company owes $1.2 million to all creditors, including Inland Revenue.
In the report, receiver John Scutter said the company had cashflow difficulties and it was unable to meet its obligations for GST and employee-related tax.
Despite the liquidation and receivership, the company continued to trade and within two weeks it had sold.
Evalstars has taken possession of the company, but settlement is incomplete, the report says.
In a court hearing in March, company director Kate Averill, who led the PNG project for Evaluation, insisted the business was ‘‘viable and profitable’’, and argued no good purpose would be served by liquidating the company and putting 10 staff out of work.
Averill said the company had grown significantly over the past five years and admitted there were ‘‘cashflow problems’’, exacerbated by the non-payment of the PNG debt.
Yesterday a company spokeswoman said the sale and the circumstances surrounding it were commercially sensitive.