Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust

The Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust (NPRT) ( Nauru Phosphate Profits Administration ) is a Nauru company that was founded in 1968 to manage the large profits from phosphate mining on Nauru. The NPRT is owned by the Nauruan government. From 2004 to 2007, the chairman of the NPRT was Fabian Ribauw (36), member of the Nauruan parliament . In December 2007, the new President Marcus Stephen took over the ministry responsible for the NPRT.

history

Future generations in Nauru should be able to live on the NPRT's money, but millions have been lost to bad investments, corruption, speculation on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and financial incompetence. The NPRT invested most of its phosphate sales in foreign properties , such as some hotels in Hawaii , Australia, and across the Pacific . However, these hotels are now run down and practically worthless.

According to the Nauruan constitution, the NPRT had to pay a certain proportion of the proceeds from the phosphate sales, the main source of foreign currency in the country, to a fund for the renaturation of the island's interior. Actually - without the additional Australian compensation payments - more than 230 million US dollars should be available for this; but this money, like that for future generations, was also lost.

Since independence in 1968, the NPRT has been the only institution that pays out cash to the Nauru people - if the payout happens at all; Most of the money was spent by the incumbent government itself on its expensive luxury goods. Even today, the population is completely dependent on the NPRT payouts for the most basic necessities like food.

By 1991, the NPRT spent around $ 800 million on real estate in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom , a national shipping line ( NPL ), a national airline ( Air Nauru ), and the Nauru House in Melbourne . Today these institutions are valued at less than $ 130 million. In 1994, an internal investigation found that approximately US $ 8.5 million was lost to bad investments and corruption .

The money was also used to import canned food from the United States . Another example is the funding for the musical Leonardo: A Portrait of Love in 1995. Duke Minks , an Australian entrepreneur, persuaded the government to sponsor A $ 2.9 million for his musical about Leonardo da Vinci in London . After four weeks the play was discontinued. Previously, some women had hindered the departure of a government delegation for the premiere at the airport by a sit-in strike.

In 1997 the NPRT had to pay A $ 26 million to an Australian property owner after losing two trials in a Melbourne court in the dispute over an old hospital . In 2003 the NPRT charged one of its former advisers in London with embezzlement of A $ 60 million. However, the lawsuit was not upheld.

While the money on phosphate sales was being squandered, the NPRT took out a few mortgages annually , including a. at General Electric . GE demanded $ 230 million from Nauru in 2004; a demand that could cost the NPRT and the entire state sovereignty. Since 2003 Nauru has been threatened with the loss of the real estate it has bought. In September 2004 the NPRT had to sell the Nauru House in Melbourne.