Any cost reduction measures in place?, page-2

Interesting find Lotrish.

The linkedin profile for William Giles https://au.linkedin.com/in/willgiles1 shows that Havilah has been his only employer since March 2016. One would assume that a "Digital Marketing Strategist & Social Media Specialist" would keep his own Linkedin profile up to date.

But then again, let's have a look at Havilah's Twitter account. We still have a pinned tweet from 19 February 2017 as the first tweet. This would be ok if it was still relevant. However, the pinned tweet is "A Day in the Life of the Portia Gold Mine". Havilah doesn't even own this mine any more.

This begs the question "What is William Giles doing for Havilah and how much is he getting paid?"

There are sometimes comments about Giles running Havilah like a private company. I'd have no objection to someone employing a friend or relation in their own private company. But you just can't do that as a public company without everything being completely arms length.

Looking over the remuneration reports for the last couple of years, as CEO and Technical Director, Giles was being paid a salary of $174,984. Whereas Walter Richards as Chief Financial Officer was being paid $268,003 plus super and bonus in 2016 and $330,000 plus super and bonus in 2017. In both periods, Richards was paid more than Giles for what would appear to be a lesser position.

It makes me wonder if part of Giles remuneration is being paid to others?

It also makes me wonder if Wlater Richards is being paid in excess of what is considered reasonable.

The following is from the remuneration report from the 2018 annual report (emphasis added):

"Due to its size, the Group does not have a remuneration committee. The compensation of directors is reviewedby the Board of Directors with the exclusion of the relevant director concerned. The compensation of other keymanagement personnel is reviewed by the Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors assesses the appropriateness of the nature and amount of remuneration on a periodicbasis by reference to relevant employment market conditions with the overall objective of ensuring maximumshareholder benefit from retention of high quality directors and other key management personnel. Externaladvice on remuneration matters is sought whenever the Board of Directors deems it necessary. No externaladvice on remuneration matters was obtained during the financial year ended 31 July 2018."

Perhaps its time for a full review of the needs of Havilah for each employee and their remuneration. For example, for an organisation with turnover of possibly $8M, we have a CEO who used to be the CFO and a financial controller (who used to be the management accountant). We have a business manager who has key strength in HR (do we need this position because we have too many employees?). We have both a Tenement Manager and a Project Development Manager - do we need both in addition to the business manager?

I acknowledge that I ask these questions without knowing who is full time or part time and what their remuneration is. I know there are good staff at Havilah and I thank them for their efforts. But when there is uncertainty regarding the income of the company and wages is the biggest cost, the Board should be thinking about how to cut expenses (and I would consider starting by asking Walter Richards to take a pay cut to save someone else's job).