Three senior executives at Dick Smith have been sacked today as investigators probe the books looking for issues that could impact the sale of the business.
Among the three executives who left the Company today was
Mark Scott, who was described as the right hand man to Nick Aboud the former
CEO of Dick Smith. Up until today Scott was responsible for all buying
operations at Dick Smith.
Also gone from the management ranks is John Skellern
Director of Property, Supply Chain and Procurement, he was also commercial
director, also flicked was chief financial officer Michael Potts. All were
close associates of Nick Aboud and all were former Myer executives.
The culling of people associated with Nick Aboud comes as
Indian retailer Tata holds discussions with Dick Smith receiver Ferrier Hodgson
with a view to taking over the Dick Smith retail operation.
ChannelNews was told earlier this week that one of the
conditions that Tata raised was that they did not want to take on board any former
senior management.
We have also been that Tata is also considering an
investment struggling US TV Company Visio that could impact the proposed Dick
Smith acquisition of assets.
According to sources Tata which is a US$134-Billion-dollar
Indian conglomerate has been approached to invest in Visio who are currently
“struggling financially” according to sources.
Tata who have a TV manufacturing plant in India are close to
making a decision on the proposed Visio investment a move that could stall any
investment in Australia.
Earlier today it was revealed that Dick Smith had underpaid
3200 workers as much as $2 million an issue that was not revealed by Aboud to
the ASX.
“Based on our investigations to date, we understand that up
to 3200 current and former employees of the Australian business may have been
underpaid their annual leave loading entitlements, potentially dating back to
2010,” receiver and manager to Dick Smith, Ferrier Hodgson executive James
Stewart, told the Australian newspaper today.
The receivers estimate that annual leave loading
underpayment might be around $2 million.
“The underpayment of entitlements appears to reflect an
incorrect application of the relevant industrial award,” Mr Stewart said.
It is unclear if the sudden departure of Dick Smith’s chief
financial officer Michael Potts, also announced today, is linked to the
underpayment of wages.
Mr Stewart told The Australian that Dick Smith executives
had been working on finding out the amount of underpaid wages since late last
year, but had not completed their work before the retailer collapsed in
January.
“The business had identified that there was an issue late
last year, and it was really a question of working through the detail of that
issue to understand what the quantum was,” Mr Stewart said.
“They thought there could be a problem but they hadn’t
completed their due diligence on it and they didn’t know whether it was a problem
or not, and when we became receivers of it (the business) we worked with the
team internally to work through that process.
Mr Stewart declined to comment on the reasons for Mr Potts’
departure.
The incorrect application of the relevant industrial award
is estimated to have added another $2 million to Dick Smith’s outstanding
liabilities.