The association believes that in times of crisis the generosity of Australians is second to none.
In response to the 2019 bushfire disaster, Australians donated more than $500M to various charities to assist individuals & communities to recover from the devastation.
Of course it is a sad truth that there are those who will seek to take advantage of such disasters for their own benefit by preying on communities in crisis, which is why raising funds for charitable purposes is supposedly subject to strict regulation.
In NSW, responsibility for the oversight of such activities rests with the NSW Department of Fair Trading & the Minister for Customer Service, the Hon Victor Dominello MP.
Individuals or organisations who wish to
engage in charitable fundraising in NSW are not only obliged to obtain a permit from
Fair Trading to do so but to also obtain the prior approval of the charities to fundraise on their behalf.
At the beginning of 2020, the association became concerned about one particular public fundraiser, allegedly being conducted for the benefit of two charitable organisations, where $150K was said to have been raised through ticket sales but where no funds apparently found their way to the charities concerned.
The association contacted NSW Fair Trading to raise its concerns & request an investigation into the fundraising activities to ensure that they had been undertaken in accordance with legal requirements.
Over the past 10 months the association has pursued the NSW Fair Trading in an attempt to confirm the outcome of its original inquiry, but with little success.
Following repeated attempts to clarify the situation with Fair Trading, the association was advised that:
• the fundraiser did not obtain a fundraising permit from Fair Trading;
• the fundraiser did not obtain approval to undertake the fundraising from the organisations on whose behalf they were allegedly acting. Indeed, one of the organisations didn’t know about the fundraising, while the second didn’t exist at the time the event was conducted;
• the fundraiser had advised Fair Trading that it had incurred a $150K loss from conducting the fundraising event;
• that no funds had been remitted to either of the organisations who were supposedly to benefit from the fundraising activity.
When the association asked what evidence Fair Trading had sighted in respect of the alleged $150K loss claimed by the fundraiser, it advised that none was forthcoming & that it had not requested any. Fair Trading also confirmed that no action had been taken against the fundraiser for its non-compliance to the fundraising regulations.
The association believes that this situation is extraordinary & that Fair Trading has completely failed to meet its obligations to ensure compliance with fundraising regulations, apply appropriate sanctions for breaches of those regulations & for failing to protect the community by publicising the regulatory breaches.
The association notes that for the fundraiser to have recorded a $150K loss it would have had to have burnt through an estimated $300K, including the reported $150K raised through ticket sales.
The association believes that the failure of Fair Trading to investigate & verify where the funds went is simply an appalling abrogation of its responsibilities & represents an open invitation for unscrupulous members of our community to abuse public trust.
John Richardson
Secretary/Treasurer
Bega Valley Shire Residents & Ratepayers Association
Tel: 0264945669
Email: secretary@begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au
Website: http://www.begavalleyshireratepayers.asn.au