ABOUT 200 creditors and employees are owed more than $30 million following the collapse of Townsville-based home builder Ark Homes on Monday.
Home owners and businesses have also been left in the lurch after the company folded mid-way through the delivery phase of about 20 pre-constructed buildings.
A ``heart-broken'' NPM Group director Tom Cummins said the company had been forced to fold after it failed in its bid to outlive bad debts of $30 million, mostly incurred through its division building shopping centres and resorts in Fiji.
About 100 employees are owed more than $2 million in entitlements for leave, missing wages and holiday pay.
KordaMentha liquidator Bill Buckby said Ark's parent company, NPM Group Pty Ltd, had been placed into creditor's voluntary liquidation on Friday.
He said creditors would meet to discuss their next move on June 8.
``There will be a notice going out for a meeting of creditors and that includes employees, which will be held next Tuesday,'' Mr Buckby said.
Ark Homes workers, most owed wages from the previous week, arrived for work at the company's home-building factory in Garbutt on Monday only to come up against men in suits and a locked gate.
Mr Buckby said the priority was to help employees claim any entitlements they were owed as quickly as possible.
He said the company had been placed straight into liquidation, making it possible for workers to claim any owed entitlements through the
Federal Government's General Employee Entitlement or Redundancy Scheme, or GEERS.
``Employees are entitled to claim for any entitlements through the GEERS scheme, which is the government's safety net scheme for employees
when companies go into liquidation and they can claim for entitlements through that scheme rather than wait for distribution through liquidation,'' Mr Buckby said.
``We have been able to hand out notification to the employees advising them of that, and our role will be that we are co-ordinating with GEERS and employees to help them receive their entitlements as soon as possible.''
He said secure creditor Suncorp had yesterday appointed Justin Walsh from Ernst and Young in Brisbane as receiver and manager to look after assets as a result of the collapse.
Townsville Bulletin 06-02-10 per Brooke Baskin
