Received via Bev Butler
Wednesday, 12 March 2014 1:48 p.m.
The CST’s latest financial accounts – link to full financial statements and a copy of the summary below [click to enlarge].
Source:
[enter in your browser] *Carisbrook Stadium CT 30.6.13 signed Accounts.pdf*
Download: Carisbrook Stadium CT 30.6.13 signed Accounts (PDF, 255 KB)
For more, enter the terms *cst*, *csct*, *carisbrook*, *charitable*, *trust*, or *farry* in the search box at right.
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Filed under Business, Construction, CST, DCC, Economics, Hot air, Name, New Zealand, People, Politics, Project management, Property, Site, Sport, Stadiums, What stadium
A 2009 cashflow report suggested the total trust and administration costs for CST for the project should be $3.7 million, but in the end they were $5.4 million. (PricewaterhouseCoopers)
### ODT Online Sat, 22 Feb 2014
Council payments to trust queried
By Debbie Porteous
A stadium opponent has questioned a series of historic administration cost payments from the Dunedin City Council to the trust in charge of the Forsyth Barr Stadium’s development. Bev Butler says it remains unclear what exactly the payments to the Carisbrook Stadium Trust (CST)*, mostly labelled ”trust costs”, were for. The payments, ranging from $40,000 to $80,000 a month, were made between 2007 and 2011.
Read more
*Properly known as the Carisbrook Stadium Charitable Trust (CSCT)
Related Post and Comments:
24.1.14 Stadium: It came to pass . . .
****
[back file]
### ODT Online Mon, 12 May 2008
Stadium Trust heads to regions
By Hamish McNeilly
Representatives from the Carisbrook Stadium Trust will venture south this week, hoping to persuade people to not only support the project – but also pay for some of the Awatea St stadium. Trust chairman Malcolm Farry said the tour would be an opportunity to discuss the project and detail some of the packages available. Read more
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
*Image: scene.co.nz – Malcolm Farry (re-imaged by whatifdunedin)
Filed under Business, Construction, CST, DCC, Economics, Media, Name, New Zealand, People, Politics, Project management, Property, Site, Sport, Stadiums
![Stadium, Dunedin [espnscrum.com]](https://dunedinstadium.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/stadium-dunedin-espnscrum-com.jpg)
Stadium under construction [photo via espnscrum.com]
—
Comments received.
Bev Butler
Submitted on 2013/07/30 at 2:25 pmhttp://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8981153/Phone-records-given-to-inquiry
Parliament’s speaker, David Carter:
“I view any actions that may put at risk journalists’ ability to report very seriously.”Both Sir Eion Edgar and Sir Julian Smith have some explaining to do as to their “actions” in preventing the reporting of the information contained in the press release below which one of the ODT reporters contacted me about on 3 July 2013, asked me questions, then nothing being published in the ODT.
PRESS RELEASE
“Philanthropist” reneges on promised $1m donation
Full independent enquiry soughtThe deceptions surrounding the Forsyth Barr Stadium continue to be revealed by official documents released on 11 June 2013.
The public, on many occasions raised doubts that the promises of private funding for construction of the stadium, had been met, but were assured by Mr Malcolm Farry, Chair of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust as reported in NBR and ODT 2007 that in fact several substantial donations had been promised. Indeed he went so far to tell the public that he had promises of three individual donations of $1 million each to be put to the costs of construction. Sir Eion Edgar also confirmed in DScene in 2009 that he would be making a donation of $1m.
That, as has now been revealed officially, was untrue.
It was also untrue as Mr Farry claimed when leading the project, that advance ticket or product sales revenue could be counted as construction capital. This was nothing other, as many ratepayers pointed out, simply advance operational revenue which could not be charged in the future. While Mr Farry denied this, the PricewaterhouseCoopers investigation found that there was little or no capital raised from ‘private funding’ for construction.
The relevance of this should not be lost when the evidence supplied to the High Court in Christchurch by the Carisbrook Stadium Trust through the DCC also stated that substantial private donations had been made for construction. At the time of the Stop The Stadium court case in April 2009, Mr Farry had stated publicly that more than $30m of the required $45m had already been contracted in private funding for construction of the stadium. It appears that evidence in the High Court case was also not truthful.
The role played by Forsyth Barr and its Chair, Sir Eion Edgar also come directly under a brighter spotlight from the release of the documentation. Sir Eion Edgar promised a substantial donation of $1m as reported in DScene 2009, but again this has proven not to be true. But this lack of philanthropy also extended to an obscuring of the facts surrounding the naming rights of the stadium. Despite Sir Eion Edgar claiming in the National Business Review (29/01/09) that a “substantial cheque” had been written for these rights, and The Marketing Bureau commissioned by the CST reporting to council the naming rights were worth $10m, the fact was that instead the stadium was named after his company for a period of two and a half years before any revenue was received. It has already been reported in the media that the naming rights were no more than $5m. An upfront substantial sum in advance reported in PwC peer reviews was somehow altered to a much lesser sum in monthly arrears payments which didn’t begin until late 2011.
Sir Edgar also had a significant role as President in his connections with the Otago Rugby Football Union when a fundraising function for the ORFU in August 2011 at the new Forsyth Barr Stadium defaulted in its payments to the Dunedin City Council leaving ratepayers to pick up the tab for booze, food, hireage and cleaning while the ORFU pocketed the gross income less a substantial organisational fee paid to the wife of the Deputy Chair of the ORFU, Laurie Mains.
While the PwC investigation was not intended to be a forensic audit of all financial matters surrounding the stadium, sufficient grounds now exist for such a full independent investigation to be carried out, and it is difficult to see just why this should be resisted unless some have got matters to try and continue to conceal. Doubts have also been expressed over the laxity of the billing and payment processes whereby blanket monthly CST accounts with no detail were passed for payment by the then CEO of the Dunedin City Council, Jim Harland, and there remains uncertainty over the validity of many of the expenses and other monies claimed for and paid by the ratepayers of the City.
[Response 1]
Elizabeth
Submitted on 2013/07/30 at 2:46 pm
Bev, quite apart from the content of the Press Release, are you saying the ODT journalist who contacted you about the release was lined up to do a story based on the content of the press release? Or that the editorial team did not support the reporter and canned the story as filed? Or for the newspaper’s own reasons there was never a story?! In other words, something of a spying mission took place?
Media can choose whether or not to cite the content of press releases in whole or in part.
Should a newspaper decline to reference a press release in its general news coverage, surely that leaves the writers of the release free to pay for an advertising statement. This is exactly what has been required with The Press in Christchurch over the fight to restore the Christ Church Cathedral – paid advertising by Cathedral advocates tied to education of the Press editor underlining the editorial bias which has run to the benefit of the Bishop and the CPT. We consider The Press’s stance deliberate to force use of paid advertising. The Press has softened since being SPOKEN TO.
****
[Response 2]
Russell Garbutt
Submitted on 2013/07/30 at 8:25 pm
Bev’s post needs as wide a circulation as possible and I would urge any readers to pass on the URL of this post to as many of their friends as possible, but it is as sure as God made little green apples, that the ODT will neither investigate nor publish anything that is detrimental to the interests of those that have certain influence and connections. I wonder if Sir Julian would be willing to show his phone records? Particularly those from the Central Otago region?
All of the material that Bev mentions regarding the naming rights is backed up by documentation – in fact so much of what Bev is talking about is now being played out in National politics with the Henry inquiry and Vance’s phone records. The story has to be dragged out before it is grudgingly admitted that a great wrong was done. And even then the perpetrators can’t get their story straight.
This is what I mean by accountability in many ways. Many have claimed that deceit, lies and obfuscation were just part of the normal business around the CST, DCC, ORFU and associated parties and it has also been suggested that this culture of deceit and lies extended to the High Court. Who am I to argue that this was not the case? But the same people’s names turn up time and time again. Reported are Farry, who continues to harangue from the side-lines, Edgar promising much and apparently confused between what is a donation and what is part of a payment for a sweetheart deal with the organisation of which he was part, or Harland, in the middle authorising payments on behalf of the ratepayers to the CST – a private Trust that remains a closed window.
And who is going to push for exposure of all the facts? We should be forever grateful for Bev’s assiduous work in prying out the necessary documentation and proof of what many have alleged for years. I can only hope that Bev Butler is, within the near future, able to ensure that any serious wrong-doing by those connected with the greatest waste of ratepayer funds, is put forward in a high profile way.
And if it can be shown in a separate jurisdiction that the allegations are well-founded – and I’m sure it can by the documentation that exists in private and on public record, then hopefully these people will be made accountable. But I’m not holding my breath.
****
[Response 3]
Bev Butler
Submitted on 2013/07/30 at 10:11 pm
Elizabeth, to now answer your questions – just briefly for now.
“The Edgar Story” was first published on Stuff News on Wednesday 3 July 2013. About an hour later the story was “pulled”.
Rarely does a story get “pulled” – it is generally due to major factual errors or a threat of defamation. As I know the information was correct then I assumed the latter.
I wrote to Fairfax management then emailed Forsyth Barr/Edgar’s lawyers. Two days later the story was published in The Mirror – a Central Otago Fairfax publication.
Interestingly, also on Wednesday 3 July an ODT reporter contacted me, questioning me about the Stuff News item. The reporter wanted to know who else I had sent the press release to. At the time I thought this was unusual – what did that have to do with reporting the news? I suspected that someone was wanting to do damage control behind the scenes. A week later I then heard from a good source that this was the case.
What really concerns me, apart from the serious issues in the press release, is the behind-the-scenes manipulation of ‘freedom of the press’. Dunedin citizens are no longer able to rely on the local media for local news. The damage done by this behind-the-scenes manipulation is dangerous. How this can be allowed to happen in a democratic society should be a concern for all in Dunedin. I don’t blame the reporter as he/she would have been instructed to question me.
[ends]
—
Related Posts and Comments:
18.7.13 ODT won’t touch Fairfax story
3.7.13 [Pulled!] Call for Dunedin stadium cash
24.12.12 A Christmas Tale
7.6.12 Stadium: Forsyth Barr naming rights
6.7.09 Eion Edgar on ‘stadium haters’
ODT Online:
11.5.12 $100m hotel for Dunedin waterfront [Edgar support]
11.5.12 Harbour hotel proposed for Dunedin
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Waiting for the watery blue ink . . .
This is the test of DCC chief executive Paul Orders, firstly.
The rotten council (politicians and staff), secondly.
Conniving DCTL and DCHL, thirdly.
The following item is reproduced in full, in the public interest.
—
### ODT Online Sat, 11 May 2013
Council report to cover stadium review issues
By Chris Morris
One year to the day since a multimillion-dollar overspend on the Forsyth Barr Stadium was confirmed, the Dunedin City Council is preparing to reveal the lessons learned from the project. Council chief executive Paul Orders yesterday told the Otago Daily Times issues arising from the PricewaterhouseCoopers review of stadium spending would soon form part of a pre-election report to councillors.
The report – a requirement since changes to the Local Government Act in 2010 – would consider the impact of major projects dealt with by the council in recent years, and any lessons learned, he said. That would include the controversial stadium project, given the significance of the PWC report’s findings, he said. ”The PWC report was one of the milestone reports published by the council over recent years, so clearly, its significance will need to be reflected in my pre-election report.”
Mr Orders’ report would be given to councillors by August 2, and made public before the local body elections in October.
His comments came after PWC staff concluded a major study into stadium costs on May 11 last year by revealing an $8.4 million overspend, together with $18 million in interest not previously included in construction costs. The overruns, unauthorised spending and interest together pushed the total cost of the stadium up from $198 million to $224.4 million.
PWC director Stephen Drain said at the time responsibility for authorising the overspend lay with the council’s ”management executive”. Mr Orders – then only months into his new role – was asked at the time if heads should roll, but said he needed time to study the findings ”coolly and calmly”. There has been no public comment on the report’s findings since then.
ODT Link
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Media Release 7 September 2012
By Bev Butler
Fourteen month fight to expose CST Marketing Contract Fiasco
New DVML CEO Darren Burden Signatory – raises question is he really best person for the job?
It has taken fourteen months but Malcolm Farry, chairman of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust (CST), has finally released information to the Dunedin City Council (DCC) revealing further serious shortcomings in the competence of the CST and the last council. The release of these papers has been rigorously resisted by Malcolm Farry and he only agreed when it was made clear to him that under section 30 of the Ombudsmen Act he could be prosecuted for obstructing the release of official information.
The papers reveal the CST contracted an Auckland company, The Marketing Bureau Ltd (TMB) to raise private funds for the construction of the new rugby stadium. The CST agreed to pay:
● the Director/Manager and shareholder of TMB, Brian Meredith a $15,000 monthly retainer;
● another TMB employee a $5,000 monthly retainer;
● additional claims for “expenses” of approximately $5,000 per month;
● further claims of extra monthly work charged out at $350 per hour totalling an additional $5,000;
● a 2% commission on any private funding raised.
The amount paid out to The Marketing Bureau Ltd came close to half a million dollars.
However, the payments to The Marketing Bureau Ltd continued when the CST decided to terminate the contract thus opening up the CST to a termination payment of $222,187. This payment was approved by the CST Board and signed by Malcolm Farry, chairman, after legal advice for closing the deal was received from Farry and Co. Barristers and Solicitors.
The Marketing Bureau Ltd thus received a total of $652,809 and the question then arises just what have the DCC ratepayers received for this princely sum? It appears that “a few” reports were written suggesting uses for the new rugby stadium including papal visits, Royal Tours, major stock auctions, and Highland Tattoos as examples. Brian Meredith also reported that naming rights to the new stadium were worth “over $10m” when reality tells us all that Forsyth Barr not only paid a small fraction of this amount but only started making their first monthly payments in September 2011 after inferring in January 2009 that they had paid up front with a substantial amount.
But it is the failure of The Marketing Bureau Ltd in raising genuine private funding that reinforces the findings of the PricewaterhouseCoopers report. DCC ratepayers were consistently told that $45m would be raised by the private sector for construction. This simply didn’t happen, and as the PwC report confirmed, advance money for services is nothing other than advance revenue and just over half a million was used for private construction.
Ratepayers were consistently told that they would be liable for $91.4m for construction, but sadly for Dunedin’s sake this figure was woefully inaccurate with ratepayers being liable for $170m.
The Carisbrook Stadium Trust was acting as an agent for the DCC in this project and ratepayers were told that the Board and its Chair in particular, were “sweating over every dollar spent”. However, it seems that the CST entered into a contract which ended up costing over $650,000 for little or no benefit, and equally it seemed that the previous CEO of the DCC, Jim Harland, approved these payments to The Marketing Bureau Ltd while being party at all times to their outputs.
Read in conjunction with the full PwC report on stadium construction, these papers reveal a sorry level of business competence from the person that signed off the contract, newly announced CEO of DVML Darren Burden, the Board of the CST, the previous CEO of the DCC, Jim Harland and those City Councillors of the last Council who were determined not to ask any questions.
Further information available on request:
1. Letter from DCC cc to Ombudsman
2. TMB contract signed by Darren Burden
3. Invoice from Anderson Lloyd
4. Invoice from Farry & Co Barristers and solicitors
5. Letter relating to the settlement paid to TMB and associated invoice
6. Original LGOIMA Request
7. Settlement invoice
8. Invoices from the TMB signed by Malcolm Farry
9. Spreadsheet summary of TMB invoices
10. TMB report dated Dec 2007
Note:
1. DVML – Dunedin Venues Management Ltd
2. CST trustees are: Malcolm Farry (Chair), Eion Edgar, Kereyn Smith, Ron Anderson, Bill Baylis, Stewart Barnett, John Ward
[ends]
TMB/CST contract which the CST board approved and Darren Burden signed (with no legal advice) leaving Dunedin ratepayers exposed to hefty payments. S042000033_1208221011000
(PDF, 647 KB)
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Call goes out – from the Citizens
—
Dunedin City Council meeting
Monday, 14 May 2012, 1.00 PM
Council Chamber, Municipal Chambers
A lot of media will be at Monday’s 1pm Council meeting.
This is an opportunity to put pressure on pro-stadium councillors to RESIGN.
As many people as possible are invited to attend this meeting with signs demanding pro-stadium councillors RESIGN.
A simple sign with resign on would do: RESIGN
—
### D Scene 21 Mar 2012
Butler lifts lid on ‘deception’ (page 2)
By Wilma McCorkindale
Stadium opponent Bev Butler has handed confidential project papers to council commissioned auditors in her bid for a major inquiry into Dunedin’s stadium project. Butler has passed previously withheld information to a PricewaterhouseCoopers forensic auditing team reviewing variances in stadium completion costs identified by the Dunedin City Council (DCC) earlier this month.
{continues} #bookmark
****
Fury over bail-out of ORFU (page 3)
By Mike Houlahan
The Otago Rugby Football Union ‘‘desperately’’ needed to be put in to liquidation so it could be properly audited, Cr Lee Vandervis says. Vandervis was one of five Dunedin City councillors who voted against approving a bail-out of the cash-strapped ORFU in an extraordinary council meeting last Wednesday. […] The DCC’S decision came after a marathon night meeting and sparked immediate outcry. Council offices were flooded with angry calls and emails, and D Scene understands councillors who voted in favour have received abusive messages.
{continues} #bookmark
****
We’re rugby-mad but not in a good way (page 7)
By Mike Houlahan – Editor
As the Otago Rugby Football Union faced liquidation, a lot of rhetoric was heard about a ‘‘proud rugby province’’ and the depth of feeling Otago had for the game. Otago, people said, could not be left in the lurch. Otago rugby administrators got caught up in the spirit. ORFU president Wayne Graham – a man who had looked aghast on February 27 when revealing the union’s plight – seemed stunned last Wednesday when interviewed on Campbell Live at 7pm. He thought the rescue package Dunedin City Council was weighing up at that moment was so good that they would sign the deal in half an hour, and seemed perplexed they were still thinking about it.
{continues} #bookmark
****
Opinion (page 8)
The truth, the whole truth . . .
By Bev Butler
It is expected that every large project undertaken by a council will require extensive consultation with all ratepayers but the crucial element missing from consultation in this case [the stadium] was the requirement to adhere to the principles of good faith – openness and transparency – during the consultative process. It was that failure by the DCC to truly listen and act to placate the genuine concerns held by so many that draws the inevitable conclusion that the DCC totally failed to act in accordance with the Local Government Act 2002.
{continues} #bookmark
Register to read D Scene online at
http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Filed under Architecture, Business, Construction, CST, DCC, DCHL, DVL, DVML, Economics, ORFU, People, Politics, Project management, Property, Site, Sport, Stadiums, STS, Town planning, Urban design
UPDATED
### ODT Online Fri, 24 Feb 2012
Multimillion dollar uncertainty over final stadium cost
By David Loughrey
Six months after the project finished, the Dunedin City Council today admitted it still had questions about the figure, and would fund a $55,000 independent review of the issue. Mayor Dave Cull said the amount in question was ”in the millions” but ”not in the tens of millions”. He would not speculate on what the final cost may be. A team from the Auckland office of PricewaterhouseCoopers would arrive in the city next week to undertake the review, which the DCC says will be funded “from existing DCC budgets”.
Read more + Video
****
Carisbrook Stadium Trust chair Malcolm Farry declared it had been completed on time and within budget. Mr Cull says that statement is now in doubt.
### radionz.co.nz Fri, 24 Feb 2012 Updated at 12:27 pm today
Irregularities found in stadium accounts
Dunedin City Council has appointed accountants to review the costs of the city’s new stadium because of irregularities in the project’s final accounts. Mayor Dave Cull and the council’s chief executive made the announcement on Friday morning. They say the council has identified money spent that it cannot account for so it has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to independently review the whole project. Mr Cull said he did not know how much the overrun was, but indicated it was likely to be millions of dollars.
Read more
****
### stuff.co.nz Last updated 12:12 24/02/2012
Probe into Dunedin stadium costs
By Wilma McCorkindale
The Dunedin City Council (DCC) had called in independent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) investigators after a report tabled Monday from new council chief executive Paul Orders on the likely final cost of the stadium, Cull said. The mayor was refusing to elaborate on what aspect of Orders’ report has initiated the Council action, saying all involved with the project are under scrutiny.
Read more
****
Dunedin City Council media release
****
### ODT Online Sat, 25 Feb 2012
DCC in stadium cost bid
By David Loughrey
A “whole gamut” of parties would be interviewed. -Paul Orders
A team of independent reviewers from PricewaterhouseCoopers will arrive in Dunedin next week seeking answers to multimillion-dollar questions concerning the final cost of the Forsyth Barr Stadium. Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull yesterday announced a $55,000 review of the stadium’s final cost, amid concerns about “questions that remain unanswered”, six months after the facility was built. The review team would arrive in Dunedin from Auckland on Wednesday, and spend three weeks studying documents and interviewing “relevant parties”, including the project delivery team, the University of Otago, Hawkins Construction, Dunedin Venues Ltd and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd, quantity surveyors and others.
Read more + Video
****
### ODT Online Sat, 25 Feb 2012
Farry defends costs; Butler hails review
By Chris Morris
“We are in no doubt whatsoever that the [trust’s] agreed budget has been complied with, and there is no question about that.” -Farry
Carisbrook Stadium Trust chairman Malcolm Farry – the man who promised the Forsyth Barr Stadium would be built “on time and on budget” – insists he has delivered. That was despite Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull announcing an independent review of the stadium’s final cost yesterday, amid concerns the budget may have been blown by millions of dollars. Confirmation of the review by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) was greeted as “wonderful news” by former Stop the Stadium president Bev Butler yesterday, although she hoped the examination would eventually go further.
Read more
****
### ODT Online Sat, 25 Feb 2012
Editorial: Big question still to be answered
While it most surely cannot be the intention, the latest delay in revealing the final costs of building Forsyth Barr Stadium can only lead to further speculation, innuendo and adverse publicity for the venue and the Dunedin City Council. For while it is imperative to “get it right”, from the beginning the most oft-asked questions about the project were how much it was going to cost – and who would pay. Definitive answers to these questions have been slow in forthcoming and this latest postponement will only fuel responses likely to range from resignation to frustration. This, after all, is a matter pertaining to the ratepayers and their pockets. It does not help matters that, having fended off inquiries as to these very matters over some months, at a meeting supposed called finally to reveal the figures, the council yesterday yet again demurred.
Read more
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Horwath HTL – Update of Financial Feasibility Projections, Summary Report (December 2008), pages 94-118
in
Report – Council – 09/02/2009 (PDF, 3.1MB)
Proposed Stadium at Awatea Street Attachment Two Part One.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers – Peer Review of the Proposed New Otago Stadium Forecasts (30 January 2009), pages 1-14
in
Report – Council – 09/02/2009 (PDF, 7.1MB)
Proposed Stadium at Awatea Street Attachment Two Part Two.
***
Older reports, peer reviews and project cost reviews at:
http://test.stopthestadium.org.nz/index.php/submissions-and-reports/
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What if? Dunedin... 