Carol Altmann – The Terrier

A blue-chip whistleblower on allegations of fraud, corruption and bullying within the Warrnambool City Council has gone public and, in so doing, exposed how broken the system has become.

Dr Bernadette Northeast, who has the sort of credentials and governance experience that most councils would grab with both hands, recently resigned as Volunteer Coordinator from the WCC, having been shafted by the very process meant to encourage people to speak up.

Boy, we live in dark times when this is considered acceptable.

Dr Northeast told me she had compiled a dossier of evidence with the input of six other people – each of whom initially approached her – detailing serious claims of fraud, corruption and bullying within certain sections of council. #notallstaff

The whistleblowers not only detailed claims of wrong doing, but alleged particular senior council staff were fully aware of the allegations and did nothing.

In other words, there was a deliberate cover up.

If you were an investigator looking into a council, this sort of stuff is red hot.

Dr Northeast and five of the six other whistleblowers all spoke to the independent investigator hired by the council CEO Peter Schneider to get to the bottom of the scandal, but despite this incredibly brave step, they have heard nothing since.

In the meantime, wait for it, Dr Northeast was put under investigation by the same independent investigator.

Her “crime” was accessing documents she used as part of her evidence gathering, for which she found herself accused of serious gross misconduct.

This is despite the documents apparently being accessible to any council staff member via the intranet.

Dr Northeast, who worked for the council for seven years, was put on paid leave during the investigation, after which she resigned for another job.

During the investigation of Dr Northeast’s conduct and in the months since, she says, there has been no significant action as a result of the whistleblowers coming forward.

Each person identified by the whistleblowers, apart from former tourism chief David McMahon, has remained in their job.

As Dr Northeast says, it appears the investigation has been less focussed on the claims of fraud, corruption and bullying that were allegedly reported to senior staff, and more intent on finding out “who dobbed on us?”

By the way, the allegations not only include the now infamous misuse and abuse of some council corporate credit cards, but also claims of misuse of council accommodation at Flagstaff Hill, misuse of council contracts, purchase of equipment (including air conditioning units) which cannot be traced, and large alcohol purchases via direct invoice.

The whistleblowers also raised concerns about a personal relationship between two council staff members that allegedly led to “tip offs” about the focus of some Freedom of Information applications.

Others expressed their concern at a “boozy” boys’ club culture, summed up by a toga party held at the house of a senior staff member, to which select staff were invited and attended, and talked about for days.

This cosy boys’ club culture is what the vast majority of hard-working and ethical staff at WCC have been struggling with for years.

It reminds me of the WCC Christmas party at the Warrnambool racecourse last year, where two employees dropped their pants and ran naked past the finish line in what was apparently some sort of weird WCC tradition. It wasn’t repeated this year.

This sense of entitlement among certain parts of council is what we believed Mr Schneider would blow right open and, to do so, Dr Northeast is exactly the sort of person he should be listening to.

Her CV includes 17 years as an SES volunteer, a Director of South West Healthcare, Chair of Australian Institute of Company Directors Great South Coast Committee, and Deputy Chair of the Victorian Fisheries Authority. Good governance is her bent.

Yet Mr Schneider has not spoken to Dr Northeast about any of these allegations.

Mayor Tony Herbert, who has previously urged staff with any allegations to contact Mr Schneider, apparently told Dr Northeast that he would arrange a meeting with the CEO. She didn’t hear another word. (I have asked Cr Herbert to confirm this).

Dr Northeast then attempted to set up a meeting with Mr Schneider herself, without success, and says even now she remains open to a frank conversation with the CEO.

But Dr Northeast is no longer with the council, having been effectively the target of a concerted push to find any leakers.

A couple of other staff are also on unexplained leave, for what I believe are similar misconduct allegations connected to them attempting to reveal what is going on, not to hide it.

Other experienced staff have resigned in sheer frustration while waiting for a cultural change that never seems to come.

If this is how it works at the WCC, something is terribly broken.

This gets to the nub of why Dr Northeast has gone public, because she says the vast majority of council staff who are hard-working, ethical and honest people, are being unfairly maligned by the alleged actions of a few.

“For the sake of the vast majority of all the good people working at the council, this needs to be addressed promptly and openly. Yet we have heard nothing more,” she says.

“How long does this have to go on without direct rectification?”

It is a very good question and here are three more:

Where is the independent investigation up to?

Has the information from Dr Northeast and the six whistleblowers all been passed to the Ombudsman for her separate investigation?

And does the council even still have 81 corporate credit cards in action?

I am putting all of this to Mr Schneider for a response which I will run in full.

I have set up a Foxy Fighting Fund. If you would like to be make a small contribution, you can do so below.

The Foxy Fighting Fund

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

A couple of weeks ago, Lyndoch Living hired a Melbourne consultant to survey staff and unearth whether, essentially, any of the issues raised here these past six weeks are true.

The online survey, which closed at 5.30pm today, is at least an acknowledgement by Lyndoch that it can’t ignore the stream of allegations around its workplace culture, but I have little confidence that it will reveal very much at all.

Why? Because I doubt many staff will be brave enough to respond, or to answer openly.

First, the Survey Monkey survey is intended to be confidential, yet so many people within Lyndoch that I have spoken to are nervous that as it was sent to their Lyndoch email address, it could be traceable.

Second, the “confidential” survey asks what area of Lyndoch the staff member works in.

Thirdly, the “confidential” survey asks if anyone has an “extensive issue” that they would like “someone” (who??) to call them about, or to see them about, to please provide their contact details.

Finally, just days after this survey was sent out, Lyndoch board chair Kerry Nelson issued a statement to all staff which emphasised the board’s full support for Lyndoch CEO Doreen Power.

Ms Power, at the end of the day, is responsible for any workplace issues which could be flushed out by the survey.

In other words, before nervous staff have even spoken up via the survey, the person who is ultimately in charge has been absolved by the board of any responsibility.

Given all of the above, would you fill out this survey without fear or favour?

What Lyndoch still struggles to grasp is that the allegations around Lyndoch are not from one or two disgruntled staff who have turned to a journalist, but a stream of people who have come to me as their last resort.

I didn’t approach these people – they approached me and they continue to approach me, because they no longer trust the internal workings of Lyndoch to listen, to protect, to nurture and to restore their faith in their workplace.

It’s exactly what happened around the misuse and abuse of credit cards within the Warrnambool City Council, when whistleblowers pushed information to me because they no longer trusted the internal systems, and no bloody wonder.

The council, in its newfound transparent culture, has hounded those who it believes “leaked” information, rather than ask why information was passed on in the first place, or be grateful to those who had the courage to do so.

It’s the same attitude behind Lyndoch threatening dismissal of staff members who express an opinion on The Terrier Facebook page or, heaven help them, clicks “like”.

I can only say to the Lyndoch board and executive: wake up and smell the coffee.

Instead of spending time and money on Survey Monkey, public relations spin, and hunting down staff who click on The Terrier, the board and executive should be diving deep to build respect, empathy and trust.

The first step should be the appointment of an experienced, independent reviewer who can take the time to conduct private, in-depth, face-to-face interviews, off site from Lyndoch.

The second should be the board insisting on summaries of staff exit interviews, which I can only assume doesn’t happen already.

And the third is creating a culture not of  “yes, sir, no, sir, three-bags-full-sir” but which encourages the question of “why?”

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, the Honourable Anne Ferguson, recently spoke about the need for a “questioning” workplace culture as an essential part of a healthy and safe work environment.

And as Lyndoch is community owned, it is not just the staff who should be encouraged to ask questions, but all of us, with an expectation of answers.

Yet, after six weeks of my hammering on the door of Lyndoch, there are still so many questions:

about staff turnover, horse race sponsorship, the racing corporate marquee, the $100 million masterplan, the “state of the art” medical clinic, staff shortages, why there is still only one Registered Nurse on night duty for 200 residents, board selection, the new constitution, core values, contracts, equipment, and corporate cars (which I haven’t even got to yet)….

We still don’t even know whether Lyndoch made a surplus or deficit last financial year.

So while Nero tunes up his fiddle on Hopkins Rd, we will rest, regroup and we will keep pressing on, after Christmas and New Year, until we have the answers.

Thankyou to every single person who has helped the Foxy Fighting Fund. If you would like to make a small contribution, you can do so below.

The Foxy Fighting Fund

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

With aged care under the pump, it’s hard to believe Lyndoch Living spends tens of thousands of dollars sponsoring the Grand Annual Steeplechase and hiring a marquee at the Warrnambool May Races.

Details of the deal are not public, but it means potentially around $160,000 – if not more – will have been spent on supporting gambling via race sponsorship and corporate hospitality for selected Lyndoch staff, guests and residents.

When did supporting gambling become a core value of Lyndoch aged care, which is a registered charity and a public benevolent institution?

Just as with Lyndoch’s plan to build a multi-million-dollar medical centre, the appropriateness of this deal is also the subject of complaints to the Australian Charities and Investment Commission, which will make an assessment.

The close ties between Lyndoch and the Warrnambool Racing Club also raise potential conflicts of interest, which I will get to in a moment.

First, however, it has emerged that while members of Lyndoch’s hierarchy were enjoying the May Races this year, life was less glamorous back at Lyndoch itself.

The daughter of one resident was, at that time, spending each day in Lyndoch to watch her Mum because she had taken to falls and there was not, allegedly, enough staff to keep an eye on her.

To protect the privacy of the resident, I am not revealing this woman’s identity, but I have spoken with her several times and she is a highly credible source.

The woman in question took a week off work to spend seven days straight, from 7am in the morning until 10pm at night, in her mother’s room at Lyndoch because, she told me, she could see the staff were “literally running” to keep up.

Many staff, she says, were not able to take their breaks.

The situation was compounded by the wing being in lockdown due to an outbreak of influenza, which meant an additional burden on staff, such as feeding all residents in their rooms.

While the woman could see the staff were “doing their best”, it was clear that if she wanted a close eye kept on her Mum while the doctors sorted out her medications, it would be better to watch her herself.

Spending hours each day with her Mum was a commitment she was prepared to make, but then she scrolled through Facebook and saw Lyndoch posts of CEO Doreen Power and chair Kerry Nelson at the May Races.

Judging by the Facebook posts, some Lyndoch executives including Ms Power didn’t attend just one day of the carnival, but at least two.

The woman, to put it plainly, was absolutely furious.

She arranged to meet directly with Ms Power to express her concerns around Lyndoch’s handling of the lockdown, the alleged staff shortages and the impact on her mother’s care, but, she says, left that meeting far from satisfied with the CEO’s alleged reactions and responses.

The woman then contacted the chair, Ms Nelson, who she described as sympathetic, as was the Director of Nursing Julie Baillie, but she ultimately came away feeling “very concerned” by the overall response of Lyndoch to her complaints around duty of care.

I asked both Ms Power and Ms Nelson to comment on this woman’s story. Neither responded.

This snapshot of life inside Lyndoch during the 2019 May Race Week brings me back to the question of what is Lyndoch Living doing at the races in the first place?

Were staff on paid time or personal leave? Perhaps this is another example of Lyndoch’s new “core business” in action.

I do know that the relationship between the Warrnambool Racing Club and Lyndoch has become much closer since former club CEO Peter Downs joined the Lyndoch board in September 2016.

It was just four months’ after Mr Downs joined the board that Lyndoch announced its first, three-year sponsorship deal of the Grand Annual Steeplechase.

At the time, the board was at pains to point out that Mr Downs – who had a very clear conflict of interest – excused himself from anything to do with that decision.

This must mean the Lyndoch Living board came up with the whole idea itself.

Lyndoch has since re-signed its sponsorship deal for 2020 and Mr Downs, who now lives in Melbourne and works for Moonee Valley, remains on the Lyndoch board.

The links, however, don’t stop there.

As I wrote in April, Mr Downs and Ms Power also have shares in at least one racehorse, Strategic Force.

Any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest there?

Apparently not.

It is these tangled webs and inexplicable decisions that have so many of us outside of Lyndoch worrying about its direction and priorities.

And it is why we will keep asking questions of those in charge, no matter what hurdles are thrown in our way.

The final instalment – before I pick up the thread after Christmas – is coming soon.

In the meantime, I am starting a Foxy Fighting Fund. If you would like to make a small contribution, you can do so below.

The Foxy Fighting Fund

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Picking up from last night, this is a story of a company, complaints, and potential conflicts of interest, all swirling around Lyndoch Living’s plan to build a multi-million-dollar medical clinic.

Let me start with the company, which leads neatly into the complaints.

As I wrote last night, Lyndoch Living Ltd last year set up a company called Lyndoch Healthcare Pty Ltd to oversee the building, running and managing of a medical clinic that is part of a $100 million masterplan being rolled out on Hopkins Road.

What you may not know is that the three directors of this company are Lyndoch CEO Doreen Power and two Lyndoch board members, Warrnambool City Councillor Sue Cassidy, and WCC manager City Growth, Andrew Paton.

 

It also has a company secretary, Lyanne Vinecombe, who was the executive assistant to Ms Power and former Lyndoch CEO Rhys Boyle before retiring earlier this year.

(As an aside, both Ms Power and Ms Vinecombe have Melbourne home addresses listed on documents from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.)

The shares in this company are worth a grand total of $12.

To be absolutely clear, I am not suggesting for one micro second that the company directors or secretary are doing anything improper – the company set up is common and perfectly normal.

What this arrangement does raise, however, are concerns around potential or perceived conflicts of interest between Lyndoch Living and Lyndoch Healthcare Pty Ltd, with the three company directors all wearing two hats.

On one hand, the directors are responsible for making sure the medical clinic is not only built, but is sustainable, and on the other, they have to make sure Lyndoch Living delivers on looking after our aged and infirm.

In terms of seeking funding and allocating finances, which will be a priority?

This question is one of several concerns that has been raised with federal authorities over Lyndoch’s grand plan to expand into a medical clinic.

I am aware of at least three complaints being forwarded to the Australian Charities and Not For Profits Commission (ACNC), including two complaints lodged before my investigations in Lyndoch began.

Another has been lodged since.

On top of the questions around potential conflicts of interest, concerns have also been raised about whether a multi-million dollar medical centre fits with Lyndoch’s core business that saw it granted charity status many years ago.

As well as being a registered charity, Lyndoch has long been classified as a Public Benevolent Institution (PBI) and both attract significant tax concessions and other benefits.

To be a PBI, the main purpose of the charity must be to “relieve poverty and distress”.

Does building and running a medical centre fit with this?

And does it fit with Lyndoch originally being classed as a charity?

The ACNC will have to decide.

As we now know, Lyndoch last year changed its structure and its constitution to include a new core purpose, which is to “build, manage, maintain and/or otherwise be involved in multi-disciplinary health care facility” in Warrnambool.

In plain speak, this means building the medical clinic.

It is a massive undertaking and a major change for Lyndoch which, for more than 60 years, has been focussed entirely on aged care.

As to why the board decided to go this way, we may never fully know. (My questions to chair Kerry Nelson and Ms Power for this story went unanswered).

But is the ACNC fully aware of this dramatic shift?

Lyndoch has lodged its new constitution with the ACNC, but with about 56,000 charities to monitor, the ACNC relies heavily on the public to raise concerns.

This has now happened.

I spoke to the ACNC and they are, unfortunately, bound by laws which prevent them from talking about a particular case, or even confirming whether a complaint has been received.

What they did say, however, is that they take concerns over charitable and PBI status very seriously and, if they decide a complaint is worthy of pursuit, it will be investigated fully.

All of this, because of the ACNC confidentiality laws, happens behind closed doors.

We shall just have to sit tight to see what, if anything, emerges.

In the meantime, I have two more stories on this whole Lyndoch saga to come, hopefully both within a week, before we pause  paws for Christmas.

In the meantime, I am starting a Foxy Fighting Fund for reasons which I can’t yet explain. If you would like to be part of it, you can do so below.

The Foxy Fighting Fund

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Why would Lyndoch Living, as an aged care home, decide to build, run and maintain a multi-million-dollar medical clinic, using money from….where?

It seems few people other than the Lyndoch board, executive, and perhaps a few consultants knows the answer to these questions, as other than announcing that it’s going to happen, there has been very little transparency around the whole plan.

And what a plan it is.

The official spiel is that the “state-of-the-art healthcare centre” will have a GP practice, pharmacy, radiology and other medical services (a neurologist was apparently mentioned at one point, which would be a first for Warrnambool), plus a cafe, and an underground carpark for 120 vehicles.

What on earth has this got to do with looking after the old and frail?

The only benefit to them that I can see is a shorter distance to visit the doctor by appointment, assuming their GP is one of those contracted to the clinic.

It will also cost a mozza.

No specific cost has been given, but it’s somewhere between $10 million and $50 million, according to a planning permit lodged with the Warrnambool City Council back in February 2017 and approved the following October.

There are a stack of unanswered questions about this whole proposal and the first is, where is the money coming from?

The second is, is Lyndoch leaving itself exposed financially?

Lyndoch refuses to say. (My questions to chair Kerry Nelson and CEO Doreen Power have gone unanswered).

A question about the funding was put in writing to the AGM on 29 October and, after numerous follow ups, answered two weeks later with this response:

“The costs of the Masterplan will be met by a combination of finance options“.

That’s the extent of the reply from Lyndoch.

What an insult.

I honestly think LyndochLand™ , apologies, I mean Lyndoch Living Inc, has forgotten its roots.

We – the community – built, nurtured and have supported Lyndoch for more than 60 years, yet we are no longer encouraged to ask questions.

In this climate we have to guess where the money is coming from, and my guess is Lyndoch will be taking on debt as part of its “combination of finance options”.

Where is the business plan to justify this decision?

And what security is being offered by Lyndoch against any bank loan taken out for the project?

The over-arching question we should be asking is whether Lyndoch – our beloved Lyndoch – is at risk of creating a financial millstone.

A medical complex seems a million miles from Lyndoch’s core business and that’s because it was a million miles, until the Lyndoch board changed its constitution last year to include a medical centre as a key purpose. Why?

Warrnambool has plenty of medical clinics – I can count at least nine – including the two bought by Lyndoch these past 12 months for an undisclosed price: the Warrnambool Medical Clinic and the Health Spot.

A new medical clinic recently opened in King St, and another is planned for the old Caltex service station site on the highway near Foster St.

Building and fitting out a supercalifragilistic clinic at Lyndoch is also just the first, very expensive step.

Lyndoch also has to make it financially sustainable.

Lyndoch will own the clinic, via a new company it set up last year called Lyndoch HealthCare Pty Ltd, and it will contract doctors and hire out spaces to allied health workers, a cafe manager and the like.

But already, even before the clinic is built, it hasn’t all been plain sailing.

Two experienced GPs, who were working with the Warrnambool Medical Clinic, resigned virtually on the spot after a dinner with Lyndoch representatives in April, for reasons which I can’t go into here.

A third GP also considered going elsewhere.

An experienced nurse, who was employed part-time by the WMC and Lyndoch, also found herself out of a job after being told that, as a result of Lyndoch taking over, she had a “conflict of interest” by holding both positions. Update: five nurses have since resigned from WMC, including two in the past week. 

Running medical centres is not easy and just the accreditation process can be arduous.

Yet financing this new medical centre, building it, maintaining it, and sustaining it, will fall on the shoulders of Lyndoch Living that, until this year, was focussed entirely on caring for the old and frail.

I don’t want to sound like a hypochondriac, but all of this makes me have a case of the nerves.

Others are concerned too, because Lyndoch Living is a registered charity and a Public Benevolent Institution.

It was granted this charitable status to care for the aged and infirm, and running a public medical clinic seems at odds with this core aim.

Perhaps not surprisingly, complaints have been made right to the top, and that’s where this story goes next.

More soon.