A letter sent by the SOE Minister to Solid Energy Chairman John Palmer urged the company to take on more debt and to pay bigger dividends, despite a drop in coal prices. File photo / Martin Sykes
A letter sent by the SOE Minister to Solid Energy Chairman John Palmer urged the company to take on more debt and to pay bigger dividends, despite a drop in coal prices. File photo / Martin Sykes
Seven years' worth of documents about Solid Energy have been released by Treasury.
Detailed in the hundreds of pages are briefings and advice given to the government about the state owned energy company's financial status.
They show Solid Energy was worried about high coal prices as early as 2006.
ByJune 2012, officials were so worried about the financial performance of the company that Treasury recommended the government move to "intensive monitoring".
The material released was prepared by the Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit (CCMAU) and the Treasury between the start of the 2006 financial year and early 2013.
It has been released after a number of Official Information Act request centred around how much the Government knew about the financial troubles the state owned coal miner was in.
