I am hearing some ugly stuff that the AKA books are showing a LOT of red ink, and MORE red ink to come!!!!!
I strongly suggest you get you clubs to get your state to keep an eye on the accounts and ASK questions!!!!! they shouldhave at least the treauserers report from the last NKC meeting for you to look at.
The figure I am hearing is a close to six figure LOSS this year!!!!!! and some big bills yet to be paid!!!!
don't let this be brushed away without some challenge, its YOUR money.!!!
I strongly suggest you get you clubs to get your state to keep an eye on the accounts and ASK questions!!!!! they shouldhave at least the treauserers report from the last NKC meeting for you to look at.
The figure I am hearing is a close to six figure LOSS this year!!!!!! and some big bills yet to be paid!!!!
don't let this be brushed away without some challenge, its YOUR money.!!!
Comments12
Why am i not supprised. Just the legle costs over the last 5 years is enough, let alone anything/everything else on top of that. Once again, how much would a paid board of profesionals have cost V How much would they have saved???
But now im just flogging a dead horse when all roads lead back the a AKA.
Questions like why did the smart card go over budget by double? sounds a bit like the B.E.R. the fed are running, ripp off???
Why and for how long will the costs of the timing system go on? and how much will it cost? when will it stop?
Paul,
'Six figures' begins at $100,000 and ends at $999,000 with an awful lot of benefit or waste in between and brings into question the trading capability to cover it or reserves or borrowings. None of that is problematical if there's a PLAN.
$100,000 is not much in the whole scheme of things if it means that is what the net cost is when you bought something useful and installed it for the benefit of karters for years to come and I have in mind here, such equipment as an operable smartcard system and an AMB timing system on every kart in Australia, on every track regardless of whether a club leases or owns a track.
But on a cost benefit analysis, you might find $100,000 is a reasonable deficit to carry and $200,000 is not. Hence we need to know what analysis was done and where the NKC set the spending parameters. And if in fact the deficit is headed towards $500,000, the alarm bells will be ringing in all those NKC delegates offices and they will be prompted to ascertain where these programs are heading and, if off the rails, instal what is necessary to get back on track.
The minutes of the AKA's NKC meetings in the past 2 years will likely set out all that's been done.
What might also be worth watching is how the accounts are presented as regards this and the next financial year. I suspect no NKC delegate would ever forget the 2001 sham accounts that were 'sold' to them which said the previous years $100k loss had been turned into a $100k profit. Looked at a little more closely like a proper, accountable and competent NKC would do, you would see in the Profit and Loss that 2 years income was represented but only 1 years insurance premiums. Deduct that and there was no profit. (Alas, in that year, the NKC didn't figure out they'd been duped)
Depending on how you look at it, accounting across this and next years financial years could in fact allow you to double what is really the current loss by spreading any part of it you wish into next year. That's awfully clever if you think you can better spend the revenue than pay your debts (see ABC Learning Centres Inquiry) or hide until next year the financial outcome that might be anticipated unacceptable if all brought into this years calculations. To give you an example, there might be another $500,000 anticipated likely expenditure and payment of it and therefore accounting of it, might be postponed to after 1 July.
Theoretically, a liability exceeding $1m might well be in focus but more than $700,000 of it deferred to account another day. The fact remains though, that if you don't have it, you are still broke.
Anyway, the minutes will reveal, as they will, the essential role of the NKC monitoring the issue as it has progressed, it's current status and it's anticipated future.
Let us all know what you find of these standard administration and management guidelines. The tone of your note sounds like there may be concerns.
I suspect Graeme they will put most of it over to the next period to make it look better as its all about "looks" creative accounting at its best I suppose with NSW in such poor state, and Nat looking as bad, there is a common thread here anyone guess what it is???
Now that Graeme has basically confirmed that a deficit exists between 100 and 900k ( near enough to over 500k). and noting smart card and transponder programme as suspected causes for the budget blow out , I have only one or two questions to ask ( and a couple of statements to add.) Was the karting public put to a referendum as to the costs and return on investment of this expenditure over the next , say 3 years?
The new introduction of licencing and transponders etc is something that probaly did need to be done. But was the right costing done prior to prevent a budget blowout?
If not......and if in large deficit , then the person/s responsible should be sacked for misappropriation ( or at least incompetance).
Any wise business person knows very well that when shareholders are concerned ,( lets face it the karting members ARE shareholders) , an expenditure proposal must be put forward first and alerts put in place as to yearly deficit/shortfall of funds versues long term profit or gain.. Company law issues may be introduced if the correct procedures are not followed.Litigation can cost lots more than you may realise.
A sporting "association" or body is no different in reporting responsibilty than a listed company.
Which brings me back to "clutchgate" and inappropriate channelling of AKA funds.
I thought AKA may have learnt their lesson last year when failing to inform the karter of large expenditure and "loans" to third parties.
I smell something and its not roses........
My 2 cents.
James NO figure was ever produced to the members on the costs!!! they just fell for the "sales pitch" of all this wonderous things the smart card and transponders will do, they made a CRITICAL mistake by not requiring a hard and fast quote on the costs, not a GUESS a written quote. it is POSSIB;LE to have done this but it wsn't done!!! then it just got past te point of no return, to stop it would mean the waste of the money already spent.
The karters were duped into believing it wouldn't cost this much.
Has this money spent given us more laps, reduced the workload? reduced the costs of karting?
The same ppl who ran NSW into the ground $$ wise are in control of National thats the worrying connection.
James True said:Now that Graeme has basically confirmed that a deficit exists between 100 and 900k ( near enough to over 500k). and noting smart card and transponder programme as suspected causes for the budget blow out , I have only one or two questions to ask ( and a couple of statements to add.) Was the karting public put to a referendum as to the costs and return on investment of this expenditure over the next , say 3 years? The new introduction of licencing and transponders etc is something that probaly did need to be done. But was the right costing done prior to prevent a budget blowout? If not......and if in large deficit , then the person/s responsible should be sacked for misappropriation ( or at least incompetance).
Any wise business person knows very well that when shareholders are concerned ,( lets face it the karting members ARE shareholders) , an expenditure proposal must be put forward first and alerts put in place as to yearly deficit/shortfall of funds versues long term profit or gain.. Company law issues may be introduced if the correct procedures are not followed.Litigation can cost lots more than you may realise.
A sporting "association" or body is no different in reporting responsibilty than a listed company.
Which brings me back to "clutchgate" and inappropriate channelling of AKA funds.
I thought AKA may have learnt their lesson last year when failing to inform the karter of large expenditure and "loans" to third parties.
I smell something and its not roses........
My 2 cents.
What GH has pointed out is correct and the deficit is at the $460,000 mark and this is after 9 months trading, a further insurance payment to make - the States were allocated $20K each for training of which very little has been spent , add another 100K, Committees conference expenses in June , most of the licence renewals are in already , so I suspect that the loss for the financial year will reach a peak of $700,000 loss for this year - last year 2009 there was a loss of $37,000 so the business is really doing well ..!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Karters ARE the stakeholders in this sport - they are the money tree and its of little concern that they are concerned ...that’s the aka way – be careful because if you speak out you get singled out ! !!
Last year the expense on smart card was $105,000 dollars - the figure quoted for the smart card was $125K if I recall. …the cards intention was to replace the issue of paper licences and a control of the licence issue system and the payment received from licences, and allow for further modules to expand its use at a later date....- that Licence module has been effective and is practically at 100% of what was required... the expense that has blown out has nothing to do with the smart card for licence control module - its to do with having a race program module inserted into the core program to administer race meetings and timing ... that required the programmers to write the program at a new cost and (allow it to use AMB transponders) and require the purchase of AMB decoders @ $320,000 for clubs via a contract that was put in place, unbeknown to most and with legal advice being ignored.!!! ( I have a copy of that advice)..!
There will be further ongoing costs as the race management program is bugged out and corrected. It would have been more business like if the SC Licence module was fully operational first ( as was instructed) and data obtained from that information fully analysed as to movement of people - numbers – ages – trends - incomes - etc etc ..
The other situation that follows with the timing module portion being introduced is that the stakeholders, (karters), are required to use a transponder in competition come 1st July. … a hasty move I thought ! coz that required additional expense to formulate the timing module into the smart card system - and trust me when I say that it is not yet completely operational in all aspects which = more ongoing costs. Just look at the health payroll system in Qld - its a complete ballsup ...taxpayers to pay !!!
The bigger issue is the fact that in the contract (signed against legal advice) requires the aka to guarantee purchase of 5000 transponders @ $220 -$250 by 1st August....at the moment only 1500 have been purchased by the State Associations, and not all of those have been sold .!! .so where is the approx remaining $770,000 going to be drawn from when there is no loot left to pay now come August ....??? Don’t just blame Millions Max as his job is to inform the “bbq board” and they supposedly give approval based on his advice - figures - financial forecasts (details easily drawn from the Smart card licence details !!!!) - that’s how it works isn’t it ..??? ..!!! those NKC reps that karters send to NKC meetings must all have been aware of the impending financial situation - the on going expenses – Christ they get reports each month, do they ever look at them one wonders !!..??? do they make comment .??? ………….now you see why we need skilled people on a Board under governance accountability but none of those there now want to loose their position of power - they would rather see you the karter pay for the incompetence..!!!
Yes, exactly John. It is RV and only RV only, that pours through the minutes and the rulebook and figures to make sure it is all correct. And god bless him that he does.
Ironically, as it now turns out, it was Richard Erdmann's perspecacity that saw RV as the AKA's inhouse auditor, during which time, all the prior wrongs were being corrected and the rules straightened out and procedures being put into place to stop the NKC making diametrically opposite decisions concerning one subject in barely 3 months like they did in Junior Performance.
Mind you, that doesn't excuse any of the 7 voting or 4 non voting members of the NKC from not bothering to check the meeting agenda for what was on it that might have been covered the meeting previously, but that is the way of the NKC, off the cuff, ad hoc, little regard for due process.
As I said previously, six figure deficits are not problematical of themselves if there's a PLAN.
Based on what RV says, someone needs to tell us what the PLAN was. Not the little plan, the big PLAN; the one with costs, funding options, cashflow predictions etc.
Does anyone know this ?
Next, I posited that if the deficit is headed towards $500,000, the alarm bells will be ringing in all those NKC delegates offices and they will be prompted to ascertain where these programs are heading and, if off the rails, instal what is necessary to get back on track.
"The minutes of the AKA's NKC meetings in the past 2 years will likely set out all that's been done."
What do the minutes tell us of the initial and revised and updated costs and scenarios ? And the NKC's adapted PLAN to accomodate them ? If there has been a blowout, why and how is to be addressed ?
Finally, I offered that the minutes will also reveal the essential role of the NKC monitoring the issue as it has progressed, it's current status and it's anticipated future.
What do the minutes say about this ?
dge on April 22, 2010 at 9:10
Yes clearly these top roles in the AKA are NOT suited to volunteering positions and Im sure the current office holders cannot disagree.
"Current office holders cannot disagree"???? then why are they resisting all change to governance unless it gives them the job???
Matty Berridge said:Yes clearly these top roles in the AKA are NOT suited to volunteering positions and Im sure the current office holders cannot disagree.
dge on April 22, 2010 at 16:34
I got given a kart magazine from 2001 and its uncanny to see that the gripes back then are the same as now. Im a racer, a club member and one of many who pays the membership and I want the best for my sport.
I will wait for someone involved to answer the questions I've asked about what the minutes record of all this but there are 2 other matters raised here that should be addressed on the hop.
John, you don't need paid officials, you just need skilled ones. That's the very root of best management practice and the proof is in the dozens of sports in this country that are 'professionally' run by volunteers. Experts that give of their time because they are passionate about their sport. That includes most Olympic sports believe it or not.
Paul, I pricked up my ears at a comment made when Queensland and Northern Territory voted the last BMP constitutional changes down at the 2009 AGM. Someone said they didn't want the NKC to be the board.
Got that ? The NKC, not the AKA Secretariat as was proposed in the previous model scuttled in June 2009, the NKC.
That is absolutely horrifying. The NKC, or strictly, the delegates of the 7 members that comprise the voting members of the NKC; so the very people who are responsible for the organisation going backwards since 2001 and currently the ones who are making decisions on the money being tipped into plastic cards and timing equipment, have actually, apparently, had the audacity to think they are board material.
It beggars belief, it's not minuted because they improperly made that part of the MEMBERS meeting in camera ! Yes, delegates of members discussing the members constitution and they, the persons merely representing the members, hide it under the in camera cloak. Appalling and utterly disgraceful behaviour let alone invalid, but it doesn't stop there by a long way because you can bet your bottom dollar, there are no SKC minutes in any State that even note the NKC delegate reported this to his member let alone any SKC has endorsed it.
How they did it and why will come out in the wash and I would guess it's not going to be pretty but that's far better than them actually becoming the board when they have ably demonstrated year after year that they lack the most critical skill of any board director which is to plan.
As a military man Paul, you would know the word for this and the military consequences. If this turns out to true, the civil equivalent must be applied.