remuneration of gus simpson

As most know I'm pretty unhappy with the opportunistic money grab by directors going by the name "Performance Rights" issue proposed for voting on at the AGM. I'm not going to go over it again because I'm mostly preaching to the choir now or wasting my time on those that feel management are beyond reproach.

The above issue however got me wondering how poorly our chairman may be paid such that his salary needed topping up with performance rights. From the annual report I got the following figures;

2009 - Total Remuneration $363,902
2010 - Total Remuneration $635,858
2011 - Total Remuneration $864,228

Frankly I find that staggering.

To put that in real terms, in 2010 Gus received a 75% pay increase! In 2011 he received an additional 36%! In total for the past 2 years that's a 137%!!!

I defy anyone to justify that kind of largess. We are not a producer and these kinds of absurd salaries are a high percentage of our quarterly cash burn. Bearing in mind that in all likelyhood we will reach productionn at least 2 years later than we've been led to believe this large cash burn is going to cost all shareholders in terms of addditional dilution through more cap raisings to cover these costs.

Now if the schedules we were promised had been adhered to I may well be able to stomach these raises as we would be a company just months from production and I'd agree that Gus and the others had done a brilliant job. Additionaly we would be able to afford them with a positive cash flow about to begin. But of course this is not the case. The reality is our DFS is still unsighted and in all likelihood will be a disappointment given that it was deemed unfit for publication in its initial state. It also seems we've now got confirmation that the inadequacies will be dealt with by massaging the numbers rather than an intense drilling campaign to boost our M&I JORC resource and that's another big disappointment to me. Our "poster boy" permitting process seems to have fallen by the way side and we're all but due for a spell in the naughty corner. We're up to our 3rd RAI response for the PTM approval and resistance is beginning to mount to our SML application. I can see no evidence that management's optomism regarding shortening the approvals processes is warranted. Frankly I'd gladly bet against production before 2014.

As far as I'm concerned thse kinds of raises and bonuses are given when management achieve or exceed goals not fall short of them. A company about to go into production could justify raises of 75% and 36% to key personnel but a company that is now spinning the wheels should be tightening their belts to allow for these delays and reduce cash burn.

Boo Mr Simpson and PEN directors. To you all I say Boo. I hope that given the backward steps PEN have taken on all fronts (including communication nd shareholder confidence) that we will see a rebalancing of Gus' salary downwards now to reflect the reduction in progress.