Advice to determine ALSO’s fate

Advice to determine ALSO’s fate

The ALSO Foundation is waiting on financial advice to determine if it will enter into voluntary administration.

The Star Observer understands ALSO has been reported to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for further investigation.

ALSO CEO Crusader Hillis said the board had met to discuss the future of the two organisations.

“The most important thing about both organisations at the moment is to establish the situation of solvency in each,” Hillis said.

“So we’ve been waiting on advice from a CPA [Certified Public Accountant] about that and he’s now got all the papers and accounts and will go through a process to come back with a decision.

“If the organisations are insolvent, we’d go to a voluntary administrator which would allow both organisations to continue to run at the moment.”

As reported last week members voted down a proposal for ALSO Care to prop up the near-insolvent Foundation to keep it alive until mid-2012.

Hillis said if the Foundation goes into voluntary administration it’s likely the members’ resolution fund would be used to pay ongoing costs to keep one or both organisations alive.

“We’ll talk out all these issues much more closely with the view that we really want both organisations to continue into the future,” he said.
Hillis said delivering on government grants ALSO had been given for two projects — Take Care Out There and the With Respect project — would also be discussed.

“It’s going to have to involve a negotiation with the state government about whether or not they want us to deliver those projects,” Hillis said. “The state government’s been kept informed as we moved into the SGM [special general meeting] … but we don’t have any information yet about how the state government is going to respond.”

Despite heavy criticism during the special general meeting of the ALSO opportunity shop’s long-term financial viability, Hillis said there were no immediate plans to close it.

“The plan has been in place for some time to bring the op shop into profit, with an expectation that would happen in the 2011 – 2012 financial year,” he said.

Two ALSO staff members have resigned in recent weeks and Hillis said the two organisations are operating on a “skeleton staff”.
“We’ve been keeping the staff very up-to-date on everything that’s been happening … so at this point the staff are just waiting to see what can happen,” he said.

Eight board members, including Foundation president Jarrod Hassell, Maxwell Gratton, Daryl Higgins, Liam Leonard, Jason Rostant, Care president Caren Aspinall, Sue Spurr and Catherine Roberts, have left since the start of the year, leaving six members on each board.

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