Money missing at Porirua Vikings
The Porirua Vikings Club has laid a fraud complaint with the police.
An internal audit carried out last year showed there was $60,000 missing from the club funds. Kapi-Mana News understands the figure could be higher.
Kapiti Mana Police prevention manager James McKay confirmed a complaint had been laid and was waiting to be picked up by a member of the CIB.
‘‘It’s with the CIB and still to be assigned. There’s no timing at the moment,’’ he said.
A year ago the audit revealed missing receipts and a lack of documentation from 2013 and 2014. It took several months before paperwork could be found that showed fraud had taken place.
New Vikings chairman Damon Rongotaua, who has been in the job six weeks, said the club had found itself in a situation ‘‘no one wants to be in’’.
He said neither he nor anyone from the current board were aware of what had taken place before the results of the audit.
‘‘We’re not talking a huge amount of money, but it’s not a small amount, and when you consider what rugby league clubs need to run, it’s significant.
‘‘We want to know how this happened and that’s why the police are involved.’’
Rongotaua said he realised having the news of the fraud in the media could be seen as a body blow for the Vikings, but he said that it was far from the death knell for the club.
Wellington Rugby League was aware of the situation and had offered advice, Rongotaua said.
He said there had been no outside grants for the Vikings in the past year, so uniforms had not been upgraded. There would probably not be any funding for the coming 12 months, he said, until the club got its house in order.
‘‘Bernie [Wood, former club president], rest in peace, would be unhappy because we’ve had to charge our juniors subs for the first time. It’s not much, but it had to happen.’’
Rongotaua said premier players such as Sheldon Akavi were standing up, playing, coaching and volunteering for other duties where they could.
The Vikings were national community rugby league club of the year in 2011. They are currently bottom of the Wellington premier table. the community. I think it’s important to show appreciation to volunteers.’’
Each nominee who met the criteria of ‘‘enhancing the Tawa community’’ will receive a certificate, to be presented by Wellington mayor Celia Wade-Brown at the awards ceremony on May 27.
The Tawa community had a lot of organisations which would have worthy nominees, Sparrow said.
‘‘The whole idea of it is to recognise someone who has been a volunteer on a long-term basis.’’ Nominations, which close on Friday, May 6, can be dropped at Mervyn Kemp library, submitted online at wellington.govt.nz/rd/tawa or sent to the Tawa Community Centre, 5 Cambridge St, Tawa.