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The board of a struggling charitable trust, created to help people with disabilities, spent $ 670,000 of public money and donations on consultants, including paying its own president nearly $ 100,000 to write reports.
Laura Fergusson Rehabilitation Greenlane Center in Auckland.
Photo: RNZ
Details of where the money was spent have never been made public.
Laura Fergusson Trust told Checkpoint in January that it was closing its respite and rehabilitation facilities because it was not financially sustainable to continue. Its dedicated gym and pool at the Auckland site have already closed and basic services are now gone.
Denis Lane, a retired forensic accountant who, until the first closure, regularly used the pool at the Laura Fergusson Trust on Auckland’s Great South Road, has been unable to find any suitable location since the pool closed.
Living in a nearby retirement town, she took advantage of her public sessions that helped her fitness and overall health. The long sloping ramp that was suitable for water wheelchairs, meant it was possible to walk into the pool. The sessions were supervised by a physical therapist who could observe the progress of his patients through a submerged window and had his own program to work with.
“The MS Society [National Multiple Sclerosis Society] The therapy is on Epsom Girls Grammar, but that was an Olympic-sized pool and your feet don’t touch the bottom and the [group] the exercises you can do are not appropriate.
“So [the LFT pool] it was a specific exercise, very useful and possibly irreplaceable in the Auckland scene. “
Curious about the trust’s claims of its dire financial condition, he examined its most recent financial statements, which showed a loss of $ 1 million in 2019.
However, this included a number of unique items, such as a business advisory consulting fee and a payment to the chairman of the board, Chris O’Brien.
“It amounts to $ 575,000, with around $ 95,000 paid to Chris O’Brien and also what is described as a ‘goodwill impairment’ of $ 161,000, which is essentially an entry in the book, but if you remove it, the loss is reduced, “he said. .
Reduces the trust’s operating losses to approximately $ 170,000, less than the deficit of $ 260,000 from the previous year.
Denis Lane, a retired forensic accountant who, until the first closing, regularly used the pool at Laura Fergusson Trust on Auckland’s Great South Road.
Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers
Lane said the consultants’ reports should be made public, not only because of the amount of money it cost, but also because it appeared to be central to the board’s decision to close the deal.
“Regardless of what they spent on consulting, I really needed a little more fresh air to say what they did it for, what benefit they got, and basically why they felt it was necessary. It’s almost like I have a predetermined result that you’re trying to achieve. “, said.
Then there were the $ 94,000 paid to O’Brien for the reports he prepared. Once again, Lane would like more details.
“Those did not get a mention in the annual financial statements in the conflict of interest section, no details on what he did to justify that,” Lane said.
“It’s a bit unusual, I don’t know what his skill and experience is, but it’s a pretty substantial sum of money to pay for a report. And a lot depends on what he sees as his hourly reload rate.”
Victoria Carter, a professional director who sits on the boards of the New Zealand Transportation Agency, Thoroughbred Racing, and the Auckland Regional Services Funding Board, said paying a board member of a charity, especially to a president, consulting fees were very unusual and she expected more detailed notes explaining why she was paid and why her services were required.
Photo: Vinay ranchhod
But other aspects of the board concern her as well, including how long the board members have worked. Together, the seven members of the current board have served for a total of 96 years.
O’Brien and deputy Dr. Simon Barclay, who have worked for 20 and 13 years respectively, are members of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.
“The Institute of Directors recommends that the terms of the directors [last] up to six to nine years, and the reason for this is that the longer people serve, the less objective, agile, effective, and enthusiastic they can become. It is not unusual for directors to serve a three-year term and then be considered for one more term, or two, “Carter said.
He is also concerned that new blood is not being injected. Last year, for example, Allan Hooker, who served on the board in 2005 for 11 years, was re-elected.
Victoria Carter.
Photo: Supplied
Carter couldn’t find a copy of the board’s rotation policy on its website, but in the first instance, he said, they should ask their members, to whom, as an incorporated society, the board is responsible.
She believes that they should consider having a disabled person on the board as well.
“All good boards of directors plan for succession annually, but they would address current and future skills the board needs that will help fulfill Laura Fergusson’s purpose and strategy,” he said.
The Laura Fergusson Foundation was created in the 1960s to give disabled young adults independence and prevent them from being placed in nursing homes and psychiatric institutions because they had nowhere else to go.
Sophia Malthus was paralyzed from the shoulders down after falling from a horse in 2016 at the age of 19.
After spending three months in the spine ward, she went to see Laura Fergusson while her home was wheelchair accessible.
She describes her nine months there as invaluable, with accessible physicals, occupational therapists, doctors, and facilities to help her re-integrate into the community.
“I had multiple dates every day both in Laura Fergusson and in the community and then in my spare time the other young people and I would go to the gym. So it was very good for our physical health. [Laura Fergusson Trust] packed with really good resources and has things like a game room and there’s a lot of access to things to keep you busy, “he said.
He said the other option, a resthome or a private hospital, which is full of death and dying, was not a place for someone to accept the challenges of living with a disability.
“The idea of putting a young person who has just been paralyzed, as if for me they have 87 percent disability, so it’s a big thing to go through. And then take me to a private hospital where old people die, that’s just pushing it further. “
Denis Lane admits that the current facilities are a bit tired, but said that given the benefits Laura Fergusson has brought to disabled people in Auckland, more needs to be done to raise funds to improve the facilities.
He was concerned about what would happen if the site, which was worth roughly $ 40 million, was sold.
“Closing it and selling the property, getting a sum of money, is not even remotely positive. I mean, what do you do with it? Money in the current context earns very little, time deposits get just over 1%, Investing in stocks is now a high-risk activity. I don’t know what they intend to do with it, but if they sell that property, it is irreversibly lost. “
Neither the Laura Fergusson Trust nor the Ministry of Health responded to RNZ’s request for comment.
