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Veteran politician Snyder Rini saves the day for the Government

One of the nation’s long serving politicians and Minister of Finance and Treasury, Snyder Rini

SNYDER Rini – one of the nation’s long serving politicians and Minister of Finance and Treasury – has been credited with saving the government from getting involved in the potential financial quagmire involving the Hell’s Point saga.

It has emerged that the Office of the Prime Minister went into full throttle two weeks ago trying to save Van Vlymen from potential bankruptcy following a court decision in New South Wales, Australia.

Government attempts to borrow $50 million from the Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA) and $150 million from the Solomon Islands National Provident Fund were rejected.

Part of the money was intended to bail out Mr Vlymen from the NSW court ruling in exchange for some deals to be hammered out.

Mr Vlymen was given February 28 deadline to settle with Patrick Wong, a one-time partner in the RIPEL issue, or face liquidation of all his assets.

As a result of the pressure, the $50 million awarded by the High Court to RIPEL over the Hell’s Point land, was brought forward from the initial deadline of September/ October this year.

“That really put pressure on the Government, one informed source said.

Other informed sources said Mr Rini simply put his foot down, telling Cabinet that the Government should never be involved in what is essential a commercial deal.

“He really saved the day for the government. He simply told his colleagues in Cabinet that the government should never be involved as doing so would only result in incurring unnecessary costs on taxpayers,” one source told Island Sun over the weekend.

“Hon Rini’s stand has saved the government from incurring unnecessary costs, which have nothing to do with government,” the source said.

Others say the matter is now settled, with Mr Vlymen paying Mr Wong’s debt. An external Good Samaritan has intervened freeing the government from a potential sticky situation.

As a result, Mr Vlymen was able to settle with Mr Patrick Wong. As well, an administrator is expected to be appointed today (Monday) who will administer the Hell’s Point estate.

“This means Mr Wong is now out of the RIPEL picture. The government is not totally out of the woods yet but the fact that Mr Wong is out of the picture allows the government to focus on what needs to be done,” the source said.

In NSW the court was told that Mr Wong (plaintiff) and Mr Van Vlymen (defendant) were, through various corporate entities owned and controlled by them, involved together in a business (joint venture).

The plaintiff and the defendant reached a legally binding agreement in short form (contract) whereby the plaintiff and his corporate entities would sell their interest in the joint venture to the defendant and his corporate entities, according to the background of the case.

Under the contract, the plaintiff and the defendant were required to formalise the contract in a settlement agreement within 60 days of acceptance (settlement agreement), following which payment would flow, it said.

But while Mr Wong executed the settlement agreement, Mr Vlymen did not. Although it was agreed that the contract existed on mutually agreed terms, the defendant asserted that the contract was subject to an implied term that the obtaining of finance by the defendant was a condition precedent to the execution of the settlement agreement. In other words, the performance of the contract was ‘subject to finance’.

“The court held that the contract was not subject to an implied term that performance by the defendant (Mr Vlymen) would be ‘subject to finance’.

Knowledge by one party that another party may or will require finance to perform a contract is not sufficient for such a term to be implied. In this instance, the contract was effective without such implication.”