By Staff Reporters\/<\/p>\n
Apia, SAMOA \u2013 08 July 2024<\/strong> – Three officers from the Finance Department and one from Operations have been suspended from the South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) following alleged $13m discrepancies surfaced as reported by Talamua <\/em>a week ago.<\/p>\n The discrepancies resulted in SPBD cancelling its Annual Women in Business Awards that was scheduled for the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0and 21st<\/sup>\u00a0June 2024 and loans to women members have been withheld as an internal investigation is in progress.<\/p>\n SPBD Chief Finance visit Apia office<\/strong> The following week, SPBD\u2019s Head of Finance accompanied by an Information & Technology (IT) officer also visited the Apia office.<\/p>\n Sources<\/em>\u00a0said it was after these visits that the call to cancel the annual celebration was made and prompted SPBD\u2019s owner Greg Casagrande to visit Samoa.<\/p>\n Termination & resignation<\/strong> According to\u00a0Sources,<\/em>\u00a0the General Manager was fired prior to the staff meeting and a few days later, two managers of different divisions resigned.<\/p>\n Sources\u00a0<\/em>further stated that the staff were also informed that a new managerial team will be recruited from other SPBD branches in the Pacific. As of this story, officers from other SPBD centres around the Pacific have already taken up senior managerial roles within the Samoa SPBD operation.<\/p>\n Cancelling the Annual Awards has disappointed several women members.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not know why but it was disappointing as we were looking forward to it and we were prepared for the event,\u201d a member told\u00a0Talamua.<\/em><\/p>\n Members of another Centre are questioning why Samoa\u2019s event was cancelled and yet, all other SPBD Centres in the Pacific had their celebrations with Tonga as the most recent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe always look forward to this event because this is where our efforts as small business women are recognised,\u201d said another disappointed member.<\/p>\n SPBD is known for staging the spectacular annual event where Centres take part in a competitive spirit. In colourful attires, women take part in the noisy parade down Beach Road stopping traffic in their wake. The celebrations highlight is the prize giving for Best Centre, Best Businesswomen and a variety of other awards.<\/p>\n Last week, officials from the SPBD main office visited and met with members of different Family Centres around the country where members were told that loans were being withheld temporarily. The members also asked about why the annual event has been cancelled and about the reported $13m discrepancy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Staff Reporters\/ Apia, SAMOA \u2013 08 July 2024 – Three officers from the Finance Department and one from Operations have been suspended from the South Pacific Business Development (SPBD) following alleged $13m discrepancies surfaced as reported by Talamua a week ago. The discrepancies resulted in SPBD cancelling its Annual Women in Business Awards that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":25617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,177],"tags":[59,4012,3973,4013],"class_list":["post-25616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-latest","tag-featured","tag-greg-casagrande-to-visit-samoa","tag-spbd-samoa-micro-finance-institution","tag-women-centres"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nLast month, the SPBD Head of Operations in the United States visited the Apia office.<\/p>\n
\nWhile in Apia on his way to Fiji,\u00a0Sources\u00a0<\/em>says Casagrande called a staff meeting where he informed the staff that the General Manager had been fired.<\/p>\n