“WAS it deliberate, or was it incompetence?”
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These are the words of recently-appointed Katherine Sports and Recreation Club president Stuart Duncan as to how the club came to be on the brink of closure in April of this year.
Mr Duncan revealed to the Katherine Times this week that over the past four years, the club ripped through nearly $500,000 of its cash reserves.
In addition, it was just one month away from closing when the Northern Territory government stepped in with a $150,00 bailout grant in April.
“The club has run at consecutive losses over the last four years, totalling nearly half a million dollars – that is fact,” he said.
“As to how or why that occurred, that is yet to be known.
“We have a bit of a mess, and we want to do a forensic audit and get other people involved to just work out exactly what’s gone on.
“It is still early days, but the club is looking into possible irregular business activities around its operations and finance.”
Sport and Recreation Minister Gary Higgins confirmed the grant was provided with the caveat that the club would put steps in place to address its financial difficulties.
“Government doesn’t make these decisions lightly but, in the end, it was a matter of saving sport in Katherine,” he explained.
According to the Department of Sport and Recreation, the precise terms of the grant agreement are commercial in confidence, however, the conditions related to ensuring the club measured and reported on its expenditure, kept good financial records and implemented better governance structures.
The club’s former board was dissolved in March and a new financial controller was appointed at the same time the government got involved.
Under the agreement, the new board has 12 months to prove the club is viable and can meet its compliance obligations.
“We exist for the next 12 months to make sure the club trades viably and that we give it our best shot at remedying the past, and perhaps get the club to a point where we can hand it back to how it would normally be run under the Associations Act,” Mr Duncan said.
Two observers from the departments of Business and Sport and Recreation will also sit on the new board to monitor the club’s progress.
Under the Act, the club is required, as are all associations incorporated in the NT, to make their annual audited statement of accounts available to the public.
The Katherine Times attempted to access the documents through the Department of Business but the last document of this nature received by the government was in 2011.
Mr Duncan said the club was now working on lodging these documents and was turning a corner.
“However, there is a lot to do in terms of developing strategic plans, operational plans and polices – and putting all of the financial controls in place,” Mr Duncan said.
As to why the grant was not made public at the time of its conferral, Mr Higgins said it was not unusual and that all grant recipients were published in the Department of Sport and Recreation’s annual report.
