Archived: Australian and Asian Missions Association Inc, charity review
Care: At least some of the information about this charity is no longer current. Use the ‘Search charity names’ box to see if there is a later review. If the latest review has a message like this, you are welcome to make your case for an updated review via email to ted@businessbythebook.com.au.
This is a charity review, a review for those with an interest in the Australian charity Australian and Asian Missions Association Incorporated (AAM).
It is structured according to the charity’s entry on the ACNC[i]Register, and its purpose is to supply some information extra to what is there, information that may be helpful in your decision about AAM.
It is up to you to decide whether any or all of the information presented here is what you need in order to make that decision, and whether you should seek any other information, either from the charity itself or from other sources.
Ministry response
Prior to publishing this review, I sent my observations to the charity, on 15 February 2016, and invited them to comment. They did not respond.
Organisation of this review
- The first part of this review is organised according to the headings in the Register entry. This is how to use this section of the review:
- For each heading in the register entry, first read the information under that heading.
- Then check if that heading is included below. (Headings for which there is no comment are not included.)
- Then there is a more detailed comment on the financial report.
- Lastly, there is a section Membership of accountability organisations claimed.
Sources
- ACNC Register (including links)
- Google search on the charity’s name.
- AAM website. Not on social media, or LinkedIn.
- State government fundraising licence registers.
- www.glassdoor.com.au
REGISTRATION DETAILS
Entity Subtype
- A subtype consistent with sharing the Gospel.
- The constitution, however, doesn’t mention religion until the last of six objects, and then not only is the Gospel not mentioned, but nor is Christianity.
CHARITY DETAILS
Legal Name
- AAM is a NSW incorporated association.
Other Name(s)
- AAM operates as AAMA. For it to be able to continue to do this legally it needs to register it as a business name. However, as the names ‘AAMAA’ and ‘AAMA Pty Ltd’ are in use, an application is unlikely to be approved[ii].
Charity ABN
- Tax deductibility: Your donation to AAM will not attract a tax deduction. However, a donation to their fund, Australian and Asian Missions Association, will.
Charity Address for Service
- I have no reason to think this doesn’t work.
Charity Street Address
- Postal address, from the website: AAMA PO Box 355, Miranda 1490, NSW.
- I have no reason to think this doesn’t work.
- This address belongs to the church at which the responsible persons (see below) are senior pastors. Presumably this is because AAMA’s administration is done by their church.
Phone
- From the website: 02 9522 4300
Website
- From an internet search: http://aama.org.au/tablet/index.html
ANNUAL REPORTING
- AIS 2015
- This is AAM’s compulsory Annual Information Statement 2014 (AIS 2015).
- It shows that AAM had no employees.
- It gives basic financial information. If you think that this will be sufficient for you
- ‘Donations and bequests’ has been overstated and ‘All other revenue’ understated by $2183.
- Non-current assets, current liabilities and non-current liabilities cannot be confirmed because they are not shown in the Financial Report.
- Financial Report 2015
- We have no evidence that the accounts were approved by the committee – no Directors’ Declaration is included in the Financial Report – but the auditor should not have signed unless they were. He signed on 20 October 2015, four months after year end.
- However, the financial statements were printed from the software on 26 November 2015, a month after the auditor signed.
- The Report was then lodged the day after the reports were run.
- The coverage of finances in this review is left until the financial report proper (see Latest financial report – detail, below).
- We have no evidence that the accounts were approved by the committee – no Directors’ Declaration is included in the Financial Report – but the auditor should not have signed unless they were. He signed on 20 October 2015, four months after year end.
ABOUT THE CHARITY
- Statement of Faith
- There is no statement of faith on the website.
- Nor in the constitution.
Date Established
- There is a short history half way down here.
Who the Charity Benefits
- Vision
- None found
- Mission
- None found.
- Activities (What did AAM do?)
- The Description of charity’s activities and outcomes in the AIS 2015 has nothing specific to 2015:
- By providing people and resources both locally and overseas to improve the well being (sic) of people and communities in these areas.
- Again not 2015 specifically, but the website describes what AAM does.
- The Description of charity’s activities and outcomes in the AIS 2015 has nothing specific to 2015:
- Outcomes (What did AAM deliver?)
- AAM did not respond to the request in the AIS 2015 for a description of its outcomes.
- None found on the website.
- Impact (How were people’s lives improved?)
- Nothing systematic found.
Size of Charity
- At $412K, AAM’s revenue is well short of the next level (the level that would require an audit rather than a review.)
Financial Year End
- This means that the next financial report is due by 31 December 2016 (or 31 January 2017 if the ACNC continues to be generous). Before that the financial information on the Register will be up to 18 months out-of-date.
- You may therefore need to ask for more up-to-date information.
WHERE THE CHARITY OPERATES
Operating State(s)[iii]
- AAM calls for donations on its website.
- It holds a fundraising licence only in its home state.
- Apart from exemptions, whether it needs a licence in the other six states that have a licensing regime depends on whether those states think that AAM, by calling for donations publicly, are ‘fundraising’ in their State.
- It holds a fundraising licence only in its home state.
Operates in (Countries)
- This matches ‘Where we work’ on the website, except that there the list also has ‘Other locations’. These are unspecified because ‘the security of our partners could be compromised’. This, however, is not a reason for not at least naming the country or countries.
CHARITY’S DOCUMENT (SIC)
- There is no Annual Report/Review available on the ACNC Register.
- Nor on the website.
No. of[iv]Australian ‘responsible person’ positions[v]
Helen Turner This function was not working at the time of publication
- AAM knows that this listing is incorrect (it says so in its AIS 2015), yet has not corrected it.
- The constitution requires two other office-bearers, a Vice-President and a Treasurer, and three other members. AAM is therefore five short.
- The directors are not identified on the website. (End of review of the ACNC Register information)
Latest financial report – detail
- This Report is grossly deficient[vi].
- Missing are two of the required financial statements, the Notes to the accounts, and the declaration by the responsible persons.
- The audit, even though signed by a Fellow of CPA Australia, and despite him saying that ‘We have conducted our audit in accordance with Australian Auditing Standards’, is a long way short of what is required by those standards:
- He has not specified the financial reporting framework that has been adopted by the committee.
- He has omitted the need for a fair presentation from the committee’s responsibility.
- He has given a clean audit opinion despite the missing statements, Notes, and declaration.
- He does not mention the ACNC Act.
- Neither of the two financial statements included are complaint with the Accounting Standards:
- Non-current assets are not mentioned.
- There is no distinction between current and non-current liabilities.
- The liabilities are grouped according to function rather than their nature.
- Comprehensive and other comprehensive income are not disclosed.
- The expenses required to be shown when a functional classification is used are not shown.
- A true and fair view requires an explanation of the close relationship between AAM and each of the ‘ auspiced’ Glory Reborn, Christ for India Australia (run by the same couple as below), and Southside Christian Fellowship (pastored by the same couple again).
Membership of accountability organisations claimed
- None claimed. AAM is, however, a member of Missions Interlink.
(End of review)
[i] Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, Australia’s national regulator of charities.
[ii] They have a trading name that should be here, but trading names are of little consequence for charities any longer. (Besides, it is, without ‘Inc’, identical to their legal name.)
[iii] This is how the ACNC explains ‘operating locations’ in their application guide: ‘You need to give details about where in Australia your organisation conducts (or plans to conduct) its activities.’
[iv] This function was not working at the time of writing.
[v] Because of the possibility of two (or more) directors having the same name on the register of responsible persons, it is not possible to be definitive about the number of directorships held.
[vi] AAMA Inc, a registered charity in NSW, was formed for fiscal accountability and networking the vision [http://aama.org.au/tablet/about-us.html].