dodgy accounts

As at 31st May 2013 the Unite Union have failed to file their 2011 and 2012 Financial Accounts.

Observation by the Owl

This is a breach of the laws regarding being a Union and being registered with the Incorporated Societies Office.

Any employer could if they wish not negotiate with the Unite union until their status was confirmed.

Interesting question for the Registrar and lawyers to debate.

The Owl has been quiet but he hasn’t been doing nothing. He has busted yet another union declaring missing millions of union members cash:

NZ Nurses Organisation loses $1.1M but Union staff get paid nearly $900,000.00 more – Observation by the Owl

The NZ Nurses Organisation have just posted a $1,108,073.00 LOSS – yes $1.1M, I repeat $1.1M loss.

Yes the NZ Nurses Organisation has lost $1M plus but its all OK – Union staff wages went up from $9,242,906.00 to $10,134,451.00.

An increase of $891,545.00  Read more »

It looks like we are not the only people who have been analyzing the EPMU accounts. We received a detailed spreadsheet from a former Chartered Accountant who has been following the stories on here and decided to do his own analysis since 2003.

The information he provided was unsolicited and anyone who follows the Owl’s writing knows I only use information freely available in the public domain. This is the first time the Owl has used someone else’s research so I spent time verifying their information.

Because it came from a former Chartered Accountant you can appreciate the detail provided is quite magnificent and a very interesting read. He made a number of notations which he has followed up with a letter to the lawyers at the Companies Office which we have seen.

Owl’s Observation

If you make a submission to Parliament you need to be very accurate with your information. A submission provided to Parliament by the EPMU said they represent nearly 50,000 workers (Electoral Finance Bill submission).

Their website says they represent 43,000 workers.

Their Department of Labour return says they have 37,000 members.

As they wrote to Parliament (the highest law in the land) and said they had 50,000 members and their membership fee is $7.30 per week this totals $18,980,000.00 in annual subscriptions but only $11,000,000.00 has been filed in their financial returns.

Which number is correct – 50,000 or 43,000 or 37,000?

If 37,000 then the parliamentary submission and website is incorrect.

If 43,000 then the parliamentary submission and Department of Labour file and financials are incorrect.

If 50,000 then website, DOL file and the revenue in financials are incorrect.

More to come on this analysis.

Attached is the RE-Filed accounts for 2009 – so far MUNZ has lodged up to 2009 (still a few more years to go) as ordered by the Registrar.

However there is a very interesting read in the 2008 comparative.

Firstly MUNZ never filed their orginial 2008 accounts. However with the whole combined accounts now you can see why. In the 2008 income comparative there is a $200k transfer from the welfare fund just below the proceeds from the sale of property.

Since this is now consolidated accounts the question are:

Which Branch took the welfare fund and pocketed it into their branch fund?

Did they use it to hide big branch losses?

Did the members know their funds were flogged?

Note 5 and 6 shows big amounts owing to IRD as well – did they use the Welfare Funds to pay off the IRD?

The Maritime Union of New Zealand are just starting file their correct financial statements and have released their 2005, 2006 and 2007 Accounts

A quick perusal shows that income received was actually $2.5M in 2007 against the original declaration of $ 573k

Operating expenses was $1.6M more than originally declared.

Full declaration of the consolidated accounts was requested by the Registrar of Incorporated Societies.

The Balance Sheet also shows an $11M increase in assets with $10.1M in fixed term investments.

The 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 Accounts are still to be filed.

More to follow….

The Meatworkers Union has finally complied with the Registrar of Incorporated Societies orders to file proper accounts. Those orders came after the Meatworkers were busted by this blog and Rodney hide wrote to the Registrar. The Maritime Union is in the same boat…we await their true accounts.

Remember Helen Kelly described the holding to account of the Meatworkers Union to their legal and statutory requirements as “hatred”

The accounts are revealing. The Owl is preparing further posts…but here are some headline numbers.

Meat Workers Union disclose losses and million dollar salary expenses – by the Owl

The NZ Meat Workers Unions filed their consolidated position of all the branches overnight and after previously reporting only the capitation income at head office levels and a cheery surplus of $17,672, revenues of $700k and salary and consultant costs of approximately $150,000.00 it can now be revealed that the true situation is vastly different from that portrayed.

In fact the Union had made losses of over $300k in the last two years paid out salaries and commissions of $1.29M and their revenue was a combined of $2.8M.

The whole integrity of the Incorporated Society Act is at stake.

More importantly the auditors qualify the accounts by saying they “have not received all the information and explanations as required”

More to follow…

The Health Services Union scandal continues to truck along with more charges for Michael Williamson, and two more senior union officials are likely to be charged.

But, why aren’t the members questioning where their funds have gone?

Former Health Services Union boss Michael Williamson has been hit with a raft of extra charges including money laundering and dealing in the proceeds of crime, which attract a potential 15-year jail term.

Mr Williamson, who appeared in Waverley Local Court on Wednesday morning, was also charged with 27 counts of cheat and defraud.

The new charges are believed to relate to allegations of fraud relating to Canme, a company registered to Mr Williamson’s wife Julieanne. Canme charged the union hundreds of thousands of dollars for archiving work that an internal inquiry by barrister Ian Temby QC and accountant Ian Robertson suggested was never done.

Mr Williamson, who was accompanied by his brother Darren and his solicitor Vivian Evans, was in court only briefly.

Outside court Detective Superintendent Colin Dyson, head of the Cyber and Fraud Squad, said that Mr Williamson had been charged with 27 cheat and defraud offences totalling around $600,000 of union funds. Each charge attracts a maximum penalty of 10 years.

Of that amount, $400,000 was allegedly laundered by Mr Williamson who was aware that the funds were proceeds of crime, Superintendent Dyson said.

The detective, who is heading Strike Force Carnarvon, said that two senior union officials may be charged over this matter.

He also said that one other person is facing charges relating to Mr Williamson’s alleged attempts to hinder the police investigation.

Since it is Labour day I thought I would give readers a little piece of information as a taster of a series that is to come.

In the last financial year 15 CTU affiliated unions lost members money.

The largest loss was $674,687 and the smallest loss was $205.

The losses of members money in total (from those unions that have bothered to file accounts) was $2,210,423

Some other key numbers to astound you:

• One Union spent $2,211,414 on travel and accommodation.
• That same union owes $1.2M in taxes, yet reported a surplus of $1,242,446
• One union that reported the largest loss also spent $1,149,528 on travel and accommodation.
• The top ten unions by revenue pulled in $96,392,035 in fees.
• Those same unions spent $54,139,939 on wages and salaries or 56% of all revenue.
• 13 CTU affiliate unions are yet to supply proper audited accounts as required by law.

There is more to come as I continue to collate and analyse the big money that flows through the unions.

Members of the Nurses Union are complaining that they are being unfairly represented. The Owl thinks they are right…and also reports that members should be looking closely at the large losses their union is recording.

Nurses Union members are absolutely right – Observation by the Owl

Union members of the NZ Nurses Organisation have complained to Family First about their executive promoting political agendas and not fairly representing them. This story was reported in the NZ Herald on Sunday.

These Nurses who are members of the Union are absolutely right and should be applauded.

The 2011 Financial Accounts show that the NZNO received $16,437,311.00 in subscriptions and other income. Expenditure for 2011 is as follows by the Union:

Reported Loss ($674,687.00)

Observation by the Owl

These Union members are correct and should be applauded. New Zealanders “love” nurses and they do a terrific job. Health Services is a complex industry and the NZNO offers a variety of services to its members though the Ministry of Health also provides an equal amount of investment in education, training, Health and Safety. Why does the NZNO Union have to run marriage equality campaigns, No selling of assets and a number of other political campaigns? Is it because they are affiliated to the NZCTU?

Section 6.1.10 of the NZNO Constitution reads under its objectives:

“6.1.10 Affiliate with other organisations in the attainment of these objectives except that NZNO shall not affiliate to any political party; and”

The NZNO is affiliated to the NZ Council of Trade Unions which is clearly affiliated with the Labour Party. The NZNO website has a number of NZCTU approved videos and campaign slogans.

Based on this these Union members are right and should be heard and their complaint taken seriously.

However it got me thinking about how the Owl would spend $16M for the Nurses.

Holiday homes, insurance subsidies and scholarships and grants – now that is a union I would invest/pay my union dues too.

Contrary to claims made previously that I was manufacturing silliness about the Meatworkers dodgy accounting practices they are now in serious trouble.

NBR reports (paid content):

The Registrar of Incorporated Societies is putting his foot down over six years of incomplete Meat Workers Union’s accounts, hiding millions of dollars.

After questions were raised by NBR columnist Rodney Hide, registrar Neville Harris originally gave the union until October 12 to file its 2011 accounts, including the previously missing branch office accounts.

The union has only provided head office accounts to the Societies Register since 2005.

Mr Harris says the union, formally known as the New Zealand Meat Workers and Related Trades Union, missed the October 12 deadline.

That is because of an Incorporated Societies Act requirement for the union’s accounts to be approved by its members at a general meeting, which is being held on November 7.

Union general secretary Graham Cooke told NBR ONLINE last month it was happy to provide a 2011 set of consolidated accounts, but it was battling Mr Harris’s request for the previous five years because of the cost.

However, Mr Harris – the deputy secretary of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – is putting his foot down.