Vern_Veitch
17-09-2002, 03:52 PM
GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONED AUDIT CLEARS SUNFISH QLD
Mr John Doohan Chairman of SUNFISH QLD representing 45,000 anglers today stated that he was surprised that the internally commissioned audit by the Department of Primary Industries had been "leaked" to the press & the apparent low level briefing to the Minister. I can't see what the fuss is all about but it is now out in the open & everyone can be fully made aware of its contents.
He said that there were virtually no adverse comments in regard to SUNFISH's project performance & the main concern seemed to be that we should implement our own more detailed accounting system instead of using a chartered accounting firm to process all our accounts. Had the Minister been briefed thoroughly, he would have found that out of the 35 suggested changes, 23 had to be made by his own Department & only 12 by SUNFISH QLD & ours included structural changes to our constitution which have already been finalised.
Mr John Doohan said that the most disappointing thing was that after having the report for nearly 2 months there had been no meeting with us by either the Department or the Minister to allow explanations of items or try to work through any issues.
Consequently major items of collective expenditure such as travel, accommodation & conferences of approx $50,000 have been taken out of context & were actually made up mainly of a grant from his own department of $ 10,000 for 5 our members to attend the international recreational fishing conference in Darwin. Additional costs for 2 major state wide SUNFISH QLD meetings involving 40 delegates & costs to send another 5 persons to Darwin raised by our own members were also included in the figures.
It is unfortunate that the department did not brief the Minister that the expenditure figures listed actually included our own bank funds as well as Government Grant monies raised from a levy on recreational fishers.
We are still awaiting a meeting with the Department & for the past 2months we have to spend our own monies to service our members on 64 Government committees around Queensland, conduct junior angler education courses, convey government initiatives to our members & generally communicate with the angling public. This expenditure included a bill of approx $6000 to actually compile & provide information for the DPI audit.
With no encouragement or funding from the Government levy collected from recreational boating anglers, these activities will have to stop very shortly Mr Doohan said.
Mr John Doohan Chairman of SUNFISH QLD representing 45,000 anglers today stated that he was surprised that the internally commissioned audit by the Department of Primary Industries had been "leaked" to the press & the apparent low level briefing to the Minister. I can't see what the fuss is all about but it is now out in the open & everyone can be fully made aware of its contents.
He said that there were virtually no adverse comments in regard to SUNFISH's project performance & the main concern seemed to be that we should implement our own more detailed accounting system instead of using a chartered accounting firm to process all our accounts. Had the Minister been briefed thoroughly, he would have found that out of the 35 suggested changes, 23 had to be made by his own Department & only 12 by SUNFISH QLD & ours included structural changes to our constitution which have already been finalised.
Mr John Doohan said that the most disappointing thing was that after having the report for nearly 2 months there had been no meeting with us by either the Department or the Minister to allow explanations of items or try to work through any issues.
Consequently major items of collective expenditure such as travel, accommodation & conferences of approx $50,000 have been taken out of context & were actually made up mainly of a grant from his own department of $ 10,000 for 5 our members to attend the international recreational fishing conference in Darwin. Additional costs for 2 major state wide SUNFISH QLD meetings involving 40 delegates & costs to send another 5 persons to Darwin raised by our own members were also included in the figures.
It is unfortunate that the department did not brief the Minister that the expenditure figures listed actually included our own bank funds as well as Government Grant monies raised from a levy on recreational fishers.
We are still awaiting a meeting with the Department & for the past 2months we have to spend our own monies to service our members on 64 Government committees around Queensland, conduct junior angler education courses, convey government initiatives to our members & generally communicate with the angling public. This expenditure included a bill of approx $6000 to actually compile & provide information for the DPI audit.
With no encouragement or funding from the Government levy collected from recreational boating anglers, these activities will have to stop very shortly Mr Doohan said.