Plunkets brace for legal fight
The local branches raised the money but the national body swooped in and took it. Matt Stewart reports.
Plunket branches are lawyering up and taking on the national body over who controls the purse strings.
Karori, Culverden, and Khandallah branches are all seeking legal opinions after the national office decided to take control of all assets, including cash raised by the local branches, without telling the branches what was happening.
The move felt like larceny to former Khandallah Plunket toy library treasurer Kim Bannon.
The national society of the 110-year-old charity was secretive in the way it transferred $12,000 from the branch without telling signatories, and then closed the bank account, she said.
‘‘It’s morally bankrupt,’’ Bannon said.
The branch was considering whether to take the matter to the Banking Ombudsman and the Charities Commission.
The move ‘‘wasn’t a good look’’ for Plunket principal sponsor BNZ either, she said.
The executive team was out of touch and had developed a disturbing sense of entitlement to the funds.
Although Bannon still thinks the organisation’s grassroots are ‘‘fantastic’’ and believes the funds may be generously re-distributed, another mum, Karori’s Rachael Bowie, said Plunket had become a marketing company, trading on a trusted brand to fundraise for corporate staff salaries.
Plunket’s total income from last year was $85 million – threequarters of which was taxpayerfunded – while 11 senior managers were paid salaries of more than $180,000. Last year’s marketing budget was $1.5m, and since June 2016 more than $52.5m in assets had been integrated from area societies.
Three weeks ago Plunket announced Karori Plunket Creche’s closure, and took $50,000 set aside for renovations.
It was important to fight this with lawyers, Bowie said.
‘‘We need to make sure we have exhausted all our options.’’
Most of the Karori Plunket money was raised to buy and maintain local properties, and it belonged to the communities who raised it, she said.
In late 2016 the charity majority voted to dissolve local area societies and take control of services, assets and funds under the national organisation.
Plunket chief executive Amanda Malu said the organisation had moved from federated governance to integration because many of the charity’s 18 area societies had either become inactive, did not have enough board members, or enough volunteers out fundraising.
‘‘Families in some areas with an active board and fundraising were able to fund extra community services and others were not,’’ Malu said.
A single national organisation was formed to ensure greater consistency and reduce inequities between branches.
Malu said there was nothing untoward in the Khandallah transaction because the bank signing rights went over to the national society when the Wellington/ Wairarapa area society was dissolved in 2016.
While the process had been ‘‘clouded by emotion and misunderstanding’’, Malu acknowledged some of the details may not have filtered down to everyone.
The $180,000 salaries were at or below the market rate for topcalibre staff in Wellington, Malu said.
She defended the marketing budget, saying half of it went into producing resources for parents. The charity sees roughly 50,000 babies a year – or 90 per cent of all Kiwi newborns.