Carol Altmann – The Terrier

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

One of the many concerns swirling around Lyndoch Living is whether its plan to build a multi-million dollar medical clinic will send the place broke.

It is important to understand that when Lyndoch bought the Warrnambool Medical Clinic and the Health Spot for a total of $1.6 million, it did not buy any physical buildings.

Lyndoch does not own the WMC building on the corner of Liebig St and Raglan Parade: that building remains privately owned by a handful of people.

The $1.3 million cost for the WMC was almost made up entirely of buying the goodwill, which basically means paying a lot of money on the hope that patients will still keep coming to that clinic.

Indeed the cost of the WMC assets was only $153,000, presumably made up of some furniture, some tissue boxes and maybe a couple of boxes of sterile gloves in assorted colours thrown in for good measure.

As part of this goodwill, the doctors sign a contract that they will hang around for a certain time and I believe these contracts are for two years.

Some doctors with the WMC wanted no part of the sale to Lyndoch, so they left early last year.

(Doctors are contractors, so, just like a plumber or a carpenter, they can be contracted to work for a certain time, but they can also leave at the end of that time. This means GPs are in control of their destiny with a clinic, not the other way around.)

And here is the crunch: while Lyndoch has paid $1.6 million to buy two medical clinics, it is now going to spend many more millions – we don’t know how many – to build a brand new clinic at Lyndoch, on Hopkins Rd.

This clinic, according to Lyndoch’s own words, will include GPs, allied health services, radiology services and maybe even a dentist.

Holymaloolah. Talk about moving away from your core business of looking after the old folks!

And this is why so many people are nervous. There are too many unanswered questions and too many examples of regional medical clinics that have gone belly up in the past 18 months, including the Tristar Medical Group in Mildura, Traralgon and Wangaratta; the Gunnedah Mackellar Rural Health Service, and, closer to home, the Ballan District Health and Care which has a model very similar to what Lyndoch is planning and which last year received a State Government bail out.

Google them all for a sobering read on risk.

If a medical clinic is such a great move for Lyndoch, why can’t we see the business plan?

Does Warrnambool need a brand new medical clinic at Lyndoch? Is there the demand?

Will the elderly residents be forced to use the GPs – and other services – at the clinic? Will the Lyndoch staff?

How much will it cost? Where is all the money coming from? What are the expected returns?

So, so many questions and still no answers, yet the wrecking ball – which will see Tomlinson wing demolished to make way for this clinic – is just a few months away from swinging.

Carol Altmann – The Terrier

In the cashed-up world of the Warrnambool City Council, a staffer travelling on the road can spend $90 a day on dinner, $40 on lunch and $30 on breakfast, and not have to pay a cent of it.

That’s a total of $160 per person, per day, paid for by you, the ratepayer.

Send five staff members to a conference and bang, you could have up to $800 a day in just food expenses, without adding the accommodation – and the WCC does send five people to the one conference.

I can’t remember the last time I spent $90 for myself on a dinner out, but I suspect I would have had to dress up.

But wait, there’s more. There always is.

This $90 daily dinner limit is part of the council’s new travel policy, drawn up last November, in response to revelations of excessive spending on food and drink on council corporate credit cards.

Did you see the word “new” in there? This is the new policy, not the old.

This, according to the council executive, has tightened things up.

This, according to the council executive, is the council being frugal, cutting costs, saving every dollar it can: good grief, I dare not think what the policy looked like before we started asking questions. (*Update: the new policy has higher limits than the last policy. Go figure.)

It does make you wonder what planet the WCC hierarchy lives on, because for the rest of us, spending $90 for one person on dinner is called “a very special occasion”, not part of a road trip.

Many ratepayers would love to have a breezy $90 to spend each night for dinner and dessert while brushing up on their networking skills, but the truth is, most people could never dream of it.

These are the people I write for.

It is no wonder the WCC hierarchy keeps these policies secret, because remember, we are not allowed to see these “internal” policies even though we fund them.

Fortunately we have other people who want the truth out there.

Because it is clear that those in charge at the council can’t possibly justify this sort of spending by some of its staff while bumping up rates pool by 4.5% this year and the next.

And they can’t possibly justify it while hitting ratepayers and residents with increases in everything from parking fines to pet regos to sports ground fees.

They can’t justify it, but they do it anyway, and that is the disgraceful part of this entire culture of entitlement that I am trying to expose, one eye fillet and one glass of pinot gris at a time.

I can still see the hand-wringing as the council agonised over which services would need to be cut unless it broke the rate cap: childcare, meals on wheels, sweeping the streets?

The 81 corporate credit cards didn’t rate a mention.

And the $160-a-day meal allowance racked up on some of these credit cards didn’t rate a mention. (Note, most WCC staff don’t get to spend these amounts  – the policy is designed to accommodate a select few.)

By the way, the Australian Tax Office suggests a “reasonable” meal allowance while travelling is a maximum of $101 a day, including around $48.60 for dinner.

If you are a big wig earning more than $217,000, the dinner allowance is $70.50. Many councils use the ATO figures as their guide.

The NSW public service is even more frugal.

Up there, public servants can spend a maximum of $53.90 for dinner in a capital city, or $49.60 for the country. What a bunch of soursops they are in the NSW Treasury! No creme brulee for you!

If only it were so funny. For the stressed out souls turning up at Bethany trying to work out a payment plan for their rates, it is far from funny.

South West MP Roma Britnell today used the first day back of Parliament to call for a full and independent investigation into the governance of the Warrnambool City Council.

As this travel policy shows, it can’t happen soon enough.

Again, thankyou to everyone who helps to keep The Terrier digging. You can be part of it by tossing something into the Tip Jar below.

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Carol Altmann – The Terrier

For weeks now, I have been asked one question about the Warrnambool City Council credit card scandal: is there more?

The answer is yes.

Yes, there is.

From the very beginning, this investigation into credit card use at the Warrnambool City Council has never been about individuals. It is not personal.

This whole investigation has been about exposing an attitude of entitlement and ways of behaving that have operated within certain sections of the council for years, particularly around the office of the executive.

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.

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Carol Altmann – The Terrier

It has taken a while, but I finally have an official response from Mayor Tony Herbert as to when councillors were told about thousands of dollars worth of unauthorised spending on a Warrnambool City Council corporate credit card.

And, thanks to a growing tribe of trusty terriers, I can also tell you more about thousands of dollars spent by the council for accommodation at Flemington, including a Saturday when the races were on.

First to the Mayor.

Cr Herbert’s statement is in full below, but the short answer is Cr Herbert was the only councillor told by former council CEO Bruce Anson about the credit card misuse.

The briefing happened in November, shortly after Cr Herbert was elected Mayor, and after the errant spending by a former senior manager, David McMahon, was apparently picked up by finance staff in September.

The council’s Audit and Risk Committee wasn’t told.

The then-mayor Cr Robert Anderson wasn’t told.

None of the other councillors were told, and I believe at least one found out about the rort when it was exposed by The Terrier two weeks ago.

Remember, councillors are there to represent us and the CEO answers to them, not the other way around.

 

As we know, the council holds briefings with councillors all the time. It’s where all the good stuff happens: the real discussion, debates and arm wrestles that used to happen in open council meetings that stretched on until midnight.

It’s also where confidential issues are raised.

But for some reason, our elected representatives –  other than one – were not told of a major financial breach by one of the council’s senior managers who, at that point, had been asked to pay back more than $4000 and I believe up to $6000.

If I had not lodged an FOI in October last year, none of us would know a thing about any of this and Mr McMahon would still be in his highly paid job.

And if we hadn’t, between us, blown this thing right open, the fresh investigation into Mr McMahon’s spending and the use of all 81 corporate credit cards would not be happening.

That is how things were allowed to operate within certain circles at council for years.

Even now, we are still not allowed to know who within council has a credit card, the spending limits, and the value to ratepayers, such as what tangible results or reports we see from the thousands of dollars spent on numerous conferences.

Thanks to the terriers out there, however, we can find out more than what the council officially tells us.

For example, through Freedom of Information I learned that more than $3500 was spent on sending up to six council staff to Flemington Quest for four days in July 2017.

Even though we paid for it, the council has refused to answer questions about this event, including why the accommodation included a Saturday and a Sunday night for at least one person, if not two.

It turns out – thankyou terriers – that the Flemington Quest is next to the Flemington racecourse which hosted the 2017 Victorian Tourism conference on the Monday and Tuesday, 24-25 July.

So perhaps the council sent six people, including two senior managers, to the conference. (It sent seven people to the same conference last year – site of the infamous Cape Schanck booze up.)

But wait, there’s more. There always is.

It also turns out – thankyou again tenacious terriers – that Flemington was also hosting a major racing event, Recognition Race Day, on Saturday 22 July 2017. Trainers Darren Weir and Jarrod McLean had horses running.

So, did some council staff arrive on the Saturday so they could go to the races?

I am a hopeless punter, but in the absence of any other explanation from the council spokesman, I bet they did. 

As we know, this whole issue is not just about unauthorised credit card use, but also spending which was considered – for years – to be perfectly okay. 

 

To get to the bottom of it, we will keep peeling back the layers. There is so much more to come.

In the meantime, here is Cr Herbert’s statement in full:

“I am responding to your question about the exact date of notification.

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