It has been about again exposing a lack of accountability and transparency, coupled with doses of intimidation, that allowed this culture to develop.
So tonight I can tell you that, yes, the issue of credit card spending and the use of public money goes beyond one individual.
It goes beyond the council’s former head of tourism, Mr David McMahon, who as we know resigned as a result of this investigation.
But because of recent threats that have been made against me privately, and against members of my extended family which worries me more, I am not going to name names.
I can tell you, however, that it goes beyond one individual, because I have receipts.
I am now calling upon the Warrnambool City Council to tell ratepayers and residents the whole truth.
It cannot just keep covering up a cover up.
What ratepayers and residents deserve to know is what the council has done since this whole credit card scandal was first uncovered late last year, how much credit card spending has been scrutinised since, what has been found and what is being done about it?
Remember, this is our money – public money.
In light of the recent report by the Victorian Auditor General into fraud and corruption control, the Local Government Minister has called on all 79 councils to review their policies and procedures and report to him by September 1.
There is no more hiding behind closed doors.
We want to know the full story about the 81 credit cards that have been in circulation at the WCC.
What are the spending limits? Who holds them? Have they been used to purchase big dinners, alcohol, lunches, coffees, gift vouchers? For what reason?
I am calling upon the council to tell you what is going on and what has gone on – fully and frankly.
And if it doesn’t, then I am calling upon the good citizens of Warrnambool who may be in a position to whistleblow, to do so loudly.
In pursuing this issue, I have not had a personal axe to grind or any hidden agenda. I am simply doing what journalists do, in trying to get to the truth.
Between us, will get there and – eventually – we will have that truth.
Thankyou to everyone who has made a contribution to the Tip Jar to help keep The Terrier digging. You can be part of it by clicking below.
WCC credit cards: bringing in Barry, the Boolshite detector
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Isn’t it astonishing that our elected councillors, while pushing for a rate hike, knew nothing about the thousands of dollars being racked up on Warrnambool City Council corporate credit cards for meals, alcohol, travel, accommodation and coffees?
They apparently had no idea. None.
I don’t think our councillors even knew that the council has 81 corporate credit cards floating around – one for every four, full-time equivalent staffers.
And worse, when it was discovered that at least one of these cards was being used to buy excessive amounts of booze, and car washes, and unauthorised dinners, they didn’t know about that either.
No idea. None. Nobody told them.
(I am still waiting for a formal statement on behalf of all councillors from Mayor Tony Herbert on the simple question of who was told what and when. Hopefully I can run it in full tomorrow.)
Despite pushing for a rate hike, it appears no councillors knew about the council’s credit card spending.
We now know that more than one card was being used in this way, thanks to my asking questions, sources who have a strong moral compass, and documents released through Freedom of Information that I lodged on 30 October last year.
And yet the very councillors who agreed to jack up our rates by 4.5% for the next two years didn’t know a thing about it, and nobody bothered to ask.
Even the Audit and Risk Committee, which includes Cr Sue Cassidy and Cr Michael Neoh, didn’t know.
According to a statement from Crs Neoh and Cassidy, the committee only gets notified if there is suspicion of fraud. Well, guess what…..
If this is what passes for scrutiny of ratepayers’ money at a time when every dollar counts, we are being ripped off and no wonder – no wonder – the big party going on behind the scenes in some quarters of council went unreported for so long.
Which brings me to a new feature in The Terrier – the Big Barry Boolshite detector.
Big Barry is a Bull Terrier and he can sniff out Boolshite at 100 paces, so tonight I am unleashing him for the first time and I am sure it will not be the last.
I gave Big Barry a sniff of the council’s claim that it, miraculously, discovered Mr McMahon’s over-the-top credit card spending in September, just a few weeks before I lodged my FOI on 30 October.
Big Barry’s meter went into the red zone! Bool-shite detected!
Because I have since sifted through my emails to council, and I discovered that I first asked about their credit cards on, wait for it, 20 September last year!
Why did I ask them? Because journalists in South Australia and Tasmania were exposing credit card rorts within councils.
Such was the flurry of excitement within council about my questions, it put a whole response on its website, buried where nobody would find it, a week later on 27 September last year.
And then on 30 October I lodged my FOI on Mr McMahon’s spending, having received a tip off about a big booze up that went onto the corporate card and was paid for by you, me and Barry via his exorbitant dog rego fee.
And coincidentally, a few days later in early November, former CEO Bruce Anson sits down with Mr McMahon and sorts out how much Mr McMahon needs to repay.
(Barry, Barry, calm down…it’s okay, we all know its Boolshite).
Despite being there, at Cape Schanck, Crs Herbert and Owen apparently saw nothing untoward that made them think, “hang on, who is paying for all this?”
And this is why we have lost faith and heart and trust in the very systems and people that should be protecting us from being exploited.
The new CEO Peter Schneider is holding his internal review, all of the 81 credit cards are now being checked – at long last – but, sorry, for those of us now paying higher rates and fees, it is all too little, too late.
Our local MP Roma Britnell is the only one in authority who, so far, has had the spine to take this straight to the top. Straight to the Local Government Minister, Adem Somyurek, who has been swift to act on the rubbish going on down in Gippsland at South Gippsland Shire.
I agree with Roma’s call for a full independent inquiry and so does Barry and I bet you do too.
Thankyou so very much to everyone who has supported The Terrier with a contribution to the Tip Jar:this investigation is the Tip Jar at work. You can be part of it by clicking below.
On the gravy train, there are always plenty of passengers
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
Here we go again.
One of the big questions that hangs over the whole Warrnambool City Council credit card scandal is how many other cards were being used to eat, drink, and stay awake with endless coffees?
Tonight I can tell you that it does not stop with former tourism manager David McMahon.
In fact, my left rib tells me that we are just getting started.
This is because the council’s secret credit card policy was so slack it allowed some council staff to spend up big on alcohol, food and their almost daily coffee run to Fishtales without fear of retribution.
And that is why we have a receipt like the one above.
It shows that in August last year, another WCC senior staff member attended a conference on the Mornington Peninsula and racked up $368 worth of drinks over two days.
This equals 40% of the total bill.
Toot, toot, all aboard! When there is a gravy train on the move, it is never short of passengers.
Toot! Toot! All aboard the gravy train. This is my adapted version of an original cartoon by Steve Nease (neasecartoons.com) originally published in The Cagle Post, Canada.
The person who racked up this receipt in August was, I believe, at the Cape Schanck conference held in July where more than $1600 was spent on Mr McMahon’s credit card on food and drinks.
This person was also part of a five-day trip to WA with Mr McMahon in October, where the infamous “tackle” was bought after 7pm on a Friday night.
And all of this travelling and boozing was going on behind the scenes while the council prepared its case to raise rates above the cap.
It is like the days of Versailles, with a select group of council insiders enjoying the party, while the majority of people in Warrnambool work their backsides off to make ends meet and are being belted with rate rises, fee rises and fine rises, because the council is going broke.
The credit card spending is just one part of the enormous waste that has gone on for a decade, but it is perhaps the most disgraceful, because it can’t be explained away as a mistake, or a misunderstanding, or from “circumstances beyond our control”.
It is pure greed, aided and abetted by a system that let us down.
Those council staff – and thankfully they are in the minority – who carved into eye fillet steaks, or who ordered another bottle of red, or another round of beers, or another glass of white wine, or a $4 coffee on their $120,000 salary – knew exactly what they were doing and they were allowed to do it, until last October when the shit hit the fan as a result of my FOI application that would eventually expose the whole rort.
It’s not quite up there with the largesse of Louis XIV, but the WCC credit card scandal is exposing a culture of reckless spending and waste that stretches back years.
It doesn’t matter if the money has since been repaid and I don’t know, in this particular case, if it has. (Once again, the council is not answering questions.)
And it doesn’t matter how the council now tries to spin it: it was just one rogue manager, discovered – miraculously – just a month before my FOI, all repaid, all tidied up, a mere blimp, just a “social media” storm…
None of that is true.
What matters it that we are exposing a culture that led us to the financial mess we are in today and for which we are paying dearly.
And all of those behind the rot have to be held accountable, wherever they may be today, including those who have since left Versailles and are now living in Coquenball mansion.
I am waiting to see what happens next with the council’s reporting to the authorities, its investigations and its reviews.
In the meantime, we press on with our own investigations and reporting and reviews.
Thanks to your contributions to the Tip Jar, I today lodged two more FOIs on credit card usage with the council.
The answers may take a long time to come, but it is worth the wait.
Thankyou so very much to those who have supported The Terrier with a contribution to the Tip Jar:this investigation is the Tip Jar at work. You can be part of it by clicking below.
Credit cards: Roma Britnell pushes for independent inquiry
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
South-West Coast MP Roma Britnell has weighed into the credit card scandal at WCC, pushing the Local Government Minister to launch an independent inquiry.
Here is Ms Britnell’s statement in full:
Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell will ask Minister for Local Government Adem Somyurek to investigate governance procedures at Warrnambool City Council.
Ms Britnell said she has had contact from several members of the community concerned about the use of credit cards at the council.
Ms Britnell said she requested and has received a briefing on the matters from Warrnambool City Council Chief Executive Officer Peter Schneider where she told him of her intentions to speak with the Minister.
“Ratepayers rightly want reassurance the city council has appropriate governance procedures in place, to ensure the money it receives from the community though rates is used responsibly and appropriately,” Ms Britnell said.
“At the moment there is a lack of trust and the relationship between the community and the council is strained and cannot continue on this path.
“At our meeting Mr Schneider reported the council already has several investigations and audits underway. But I believe the Minister also has a responsibility to play a role.
“An independent investigation is the only way the relationship between the council and the community can begin to be rebuilt and I’ll be asking the minister to launch such an investigation to ensure ratepayers can have confidence their money is being spent responsibly for the benefit the city.”
Ms Britnell said she has also met with Warrnambool Ratepayers Association President Brian Kelson to discuss these matters.
WCC credit card: if it’s fraud, what are we doing about it?
Any investigation into credit card misuse at Warrnambool City Council must include all 81 cards in use among a full-time equivalent staff of 390 people. Image: Commbank.
Carol Altmann – The Terrier
I very rarely do this in writing, but it’s time to drop the f-bomb.
Fraud.
It is not a word to be used lightly, but there is no doubt it is circling over the credit card scandal engulfing the Warrnambool City Council.
This is how the Victoria Police define fraud: “any deceitful or intentionally dishonest conduct, involving acts or omissions or the making of false statements, orally or in writing, with the objective of obtaining money or other benefit from a person/organisation for him/herself or another”.
Hmm, sounds like we might have a match.
The public response to this scandal is clear: ratepayers don’t want another review that goes nowhere, they want to know if there was fraud and, if so, what is being done about it?
In other words, it’s time to bring in the big guns.
This saga goes well beyond tourism chief David McMahon resigning and moving on, despite the council chiefs working hard to try and contain the fallout.
The CEO and councillors have known about this issue for months, but are now apparently gagged from speaking for legal reasons, which is no doubt a huge relief to those councillors who have not said a word.
I get nervous about speaking up too, but when it comes to backing the public, I would rather drown in a sea of truth than cling to a system designed to keep ratepayers in the dark.
We are still being kept in the dark, because none of what we have been told so far makes any sense.
Things got off to a bad start when CEO Peter Schneider, in telling council staff that Mr McMahon had quit, praised Mr McMahon’s many achievements and wished him well, as you do.
He then explained that the credit card repayments Mr McMahon and former CEO Bruce Anson nutted out over a table last November were work related.
Work related?
Why on earth would Mr McMahon be asked to repay more than $4000 from his own pocket – and possibly up to to $6000 according to my sources – if it was all work related?
And why would Mr McMahon agree?
I don’t know of anyone who would willingly hand over more than $4000 to their boss for work-related expenses.
And why, if everything was just a huge misunderstanding, did Mr McMahon give up his $100,000-plus a year job?
The Lady Bay Resort room hire prices show conference rooms costs between $200 and $300 each, not the more than $700 claimed on a receipt.
One of those expenses repaid was $736.50 for a “room hire” at the Lady Bay Resort just last September for a “conference” that the council, so far, can’t explain.
Did Mr McMahon accidentally hire a conference room at the Lady Bay? I had a look (see above) and unless you are booking a wedding, the Lady Bay Resort doesn’t have room hire that costs $736.50. The most expensive is $300.
Mr Schneider now says all of this was “work related”, but at the same time, Mr McMahon repaid the cost and has since left his job.
Nothing makes sense and it never does when you’re only getting half the story.
Mayor Tony Herbert’s contribution so far is to tell the paper he is “very disappointed” and he could “understand” ratepayers’ “views”.
Views! Ratepayers are bloody furious, and rightly so.
Because Cr Herbert, who promised to cut costs wherever he could, was there, along with Cr Owen, at the Cape Schanck conference when Mr McMahon shouted hundreds of dollars worth of drinks at the bar.
And Cr Herbert and Cr Owen were both there when Mr McMahon paid for every single VEAC breakfast and brunch.
Cr Herbert, you need to be so, so much more than “disappointed”.
The drinks bill from the Cape Schanck conference last July that started the whole credit card investigation. (My words added in red).
And then we have the ratepayers’ money that hasn’t been repaid, but should have been.
I would have thought a report to the police would also be mandatory.
Mr Schneider says the council is “fully aware of its reporting obligations”, so I would imagine the council has reported this issue to IBAC and perhaps the police.
We can only hope so, and that a full, independent investigation follows into Mr McMahon’s spending and the spending on all 81 of the council’s corporate credit cards.
This whole credit card scandal happened because of, at the very least, a lack of scrutiny and transparency.
How far it goes, how deep it goes, and who else is caught in the net remains to be seen and – again – will only be settled by a full and frank investigation.
As the saying goes, those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear.
Having been ripped off for months before anybody noticed, WCC ratepayers deserve nothing less.
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