Employees and shareholders of the City Market foodstore chain can expect a "full and frank" report on the condition of its pension fund, with Guardian Business learning a forensic review dating back to June 2010 is now 95 percent complete.
"There will be full disclosure and the chips will fall where they may, my hands are clean," Mark Finlayson, President of City Market's parent company Bahamas Supermarkets Limited (BSL), said in a press release yesterday.
Working on the forensic review is John S. Bain, who told Guardian Business it is now 95 percent complete. He vouched for Finlayson's intention for full disclosure on the findings of the forensic review.
"He told me not to hold anything back - and to call names," Bain said. "He inherited a lot of problems, many he may not be aware of ... the fund may not have been audited for a while."
Temporary and permanent store closures at the chain - once a contender for the lead position among Bahamian grocers - has left employees with reduced work weeks. With only two stores in New Providence and one in Grand Bahama still open for business, many are concerned about the state of the pension fund as well.
The forensic review - much broader in scope and more detailed in its processes and recommendations than a statutory audit - examines the fund in the period prior to the takeover by Trans Island Traders - the Finlayson family's company that holds its 78 percent ownership in BSI.
Bain said that Finlayson has also approached him about completing an audit of the fund for the period since the Trans-Island takeover to present.
Last month, the Guardian received a letter from City Market employees in which they expressed concern about what their financial entitlement would be if they chose to leave the firm.
"The first exodus of employees were given their pension money in full. However, the last set of employees who are ready to leave are being told when they arrive at the head office that because of the financial state of the company they can only receive 20 percent up front, and the other on a monthly basis," read the letter.
This month last year, a local daily reported that BSL owed over $500,000 to the staff pension fund at the close of the September 2009 fiscal year. Other reports have indicated that the company discontinued making contributions to the pension fund, although Guardian Business has not been able to confirm that information independently.
City Market has been beset with issues that by the middle of 2010 customers saw manifest through extreme shortages of goods. Store shelves had been depleted to bare, or near-bare status, and were not being re-stocked. Trans-Island Traders picked up the chain from Trinidad's Neal and Massey last November for $1, along with an agreement to assume the company's liabilities - according to various news media somewhere between $10 million and $20 million.
Since the Trans Island takeover, the company has gone to a 24-hour format and introduced other initiatives to increase market share and address '"leakage" and other issues. They captured headlines earlier this year with a move to execute the first "hostile" takeover in The Bahamas, with rival food chain AML Foods Limited the declared object of its desire. The chain had also announced plans, or intentions, to open 'mega stores' in New Providence and Grand Bahama, and had hinted at special "express" locations as well.
For now, the company is aiming to address refrigeration and infrastructure issues at New Providence's Sea Grapes and South Beach stores. It says that work should be completed by the end of the year, at which time it intends to reopen the locations.
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