FSG its own boss: Govt
THE State Government says it had limited ability to monitor how failed charity FSG spent taxpayer funds.
Minister for the Department of Communities, Disability Services and Seniors, Coralee O’Rourke, confirmed her department provided approximately half of FSG’s $60 million annual budget.
But she said decisions about how that money was spent were the responsibility of the FSG board.
“Unfortunately they’re an independent, non-government organisation, they have an independent board that is responsible for making all the business decisions,” she said.
“Some of the business decisions they have made have not worked ... but that’s something that sits with the board.
“I agree with you that they haven’t made the right decisions, these are questions you should be posing to the board and CEO.”
Ms O’Rourke likened the board of FSG to the owners of a “fish and chip shop”.
“It’s the same as a fish and chip shop down the road run by Mr and Mrs so and so,” she said. “They receive revenue from the sale of their wares.
“They have to make efficient decisions about how they improve their profit, they don’t want to go into loss – that’s a very small scale example obviously.
“I’m just trying to give you examples – a non-government organisation has a board, we can’t step into their decisions.”
FSG are required to generate annual reports that are made public on the Australian Charities and Not-forprofits Commission website.
Ms O’Rourke said FSG also provided an independent report to her department each year.
Despite reporting losses of $1 million in 2015, $2.29 million in 2016 and $5.225 million in 2017, Ms O’Rourke said the independent auditor, who she named as KPMG, did not raise any issue with the charity’s finances.
Based on the information Ms O’Rourke claims she received from KPMG, she was unaware FSG was recording losses.
“The moment it became apparent in early May (2018) that there was an ongoing concern with regards to their financial viability was when the department stepped in and that was when the request for independent financial investigations by BDO (auditors) were commenced.”
Administrators for FSG began work on Monday.
IT’S THE SAME AS A FISH AND CHIP SHOP DOWN THE ROAD ... THEY RECEIVE REVENUE FROM THE SALE OF THEIR WARES