Posted 14 May 2014 - 09:51 AM
Although it cost £60,000 of taxpayers money Allan Bell insists that the four page puff-piece in the FT is not simply a paid advert for the Council of Minister’s. Not at all?
The section under the heading “Tie up with London Studios puts island in a leading roleagain” was particularly interesting as an example of it not being a paid advert.
Treasury Minister Eddie Teare is mentioned. Pinewood gets an annual fee for running the Isle of Man Film Investment Fund, but “Mr Teare has kept precise figures close to his chest”.
In the interests of assisting Andrew Bounds with his failure to get this information and give it in the ‘not a paid for advert’ and Eddie Teare in his continuing role as the hostage to fortune who refuses to talk even when being interrogated by the dastardly Mrs Beecroft in the torture chamber of the Parliament.
Here is the information from Pinewood’s own accounts freely available on line at any time here http://www.pinewoodg...d-presentations
How much is the annual fee paid to Pinewood? That would be, “Under the Agreement from the IOMT of £0.2 million during the year as an Annual Management Fee”. Easy isn’t it you just go and look it up online, free anytime you like.
Just like you can read this too, “The Group has a consultancy Agreement for Services related to the Isle of Man Investment Advisory Agreement with Gasworks Media Ltd, a company incorporated in the Isle of Man, whose sole shareholder, Steve Christian, is also an Executive Director of the Group. The total value of the transactions during the year (2013) is £135.000, of which £45.000 remains outstanding for payment by the Group at 30 September 2013 (six month period ended 30 September 2012 : no transactions) The balance owed is unsecured, interest free and payable in cash upon invoicing”.
Then there is the matter of exactly how many Cinemanx and GasWorks Media projects that have also been funded out of the Manx Investment Fund too. For those who may not know it, Cinemanx and GasWorks are also owned by Steve Christian.
Eddie Teare under questioning refuses to answer with figures, preferring to keep precise figures close to his chest, he cries out commercial confidentiality at every turn of the way.
Sadly for him and us, the figures are there to be read and they tell the plain unvarnished truth. Is it too much to ask that the Public Accounts Committee might actually do its job for once and investigate this matter fully?