Archived: Cosmos Healthcare Incorporated, charity review

This is a charity review, a review for those with an interest in the Australian charity Cosmos Healthcare Incorporated (CH).

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 CH.

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 24 February 2016, and invited them to comment. Despite their claim on their website contact form, ‘we do respond to all email enquires’, I didn’t hear from them.

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. This also applies to the information in the Financial Report.)
• There is then 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.
• CH website.
• CH on FaceBook, Instagram, and ?. But none of these buttons work on the website. No button for them but CH has videos on Vimeo and YouTube. Not on LinkedIn.
• State government fundraising licence registers.
• www.glassdoor.com.au

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Entity Subtype

• Although CH describes itself as ‘a Christian health and development organisation’ (for instance, here), the absence of Advancing Religion in the four subtypes here suggests that sharing the Gospel is not an aim.
• There is no mention of Christianity in the objects in the constitution.
• Despite these two lacks, CH does integrate evangelism in its work: http://www.cosmoshealth.org/about/our-goals.html.

CHARITY DETAILS

Legal Name

• CH is a WA incorporated association.

Other Name(s)

• The trading name Cosmos Healthcare is missing here. But this doesn’t allow CH to operate under this name. To continue to do this legally – for instance on their FaceBook page – they need to register it as a business name.

Charity ABN

• The ABN record says that CH is a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR), meaning that you can claim a tax deduction for your donation.
• This does not match the information given on Donate page. There is says that to make a tax deductible donation you have to send your donation to ‘Global Mission Partners’[ii], marking it for CH.
  • How is that not a circumvention of the DGR legislation?
  • GMP take a percentage of the donation, 2.5% over $5000 and 5% under $5000, for their trouble. Why not a flat fee?

Charity Address for Service

• I have no reason to think that this does not work.

Charity Street Address

• The internet search gave a different address: 64B Etwell St, East Victoria Park WA 6101
• Postal address, from the website: PO Box 164 Bentley WA 6982

Email

• I have no reason to think that this does not work.

Phone

• FaceBook has a different number: (08) 6168 1670

ANNUAL REPORTING

• AIS 2015
  • This is CH’s compulsory Annual Information Statement 2015 (AIS 2015).
  • It gives basic financial information. If you think that this might be sufficient for you there’s only a minor difference to the financial statements: switch Other Income to All other revenue.
• Financial Report 2015
  • The report was signed three and a half months after the year end.
  • It was then lodged two months after that.
  • The coverage of finances in this review is left until the financial report proper (see Latest financial report – detail, below).

ABOUT THE CHARITY

• Statement of Faith
  • None found on the website.
  • One is included as an appendix to the constitution, one that CH says, at the end, is ‘consistent with the historic statements of faith such as the Apostles and Nicene Creeds and also with the Statement of Faith of the World Evangelical Fellowship.’

Date Established 

• Here’s how they started.

Who the Charity Benefits

• Vision
  • A little hidden, here: To facilitate quality holistic health care and development projects in underprivileged communities across the world.
• Mission
  • None found.
• Activities (What did CH do?)
  • From the Description of charity’s activities and outcomes in the AIS 2015:
    • Supported mobile health eduction/service (sic) in Zimbabwe. Sent short term teams of volunteers to project sites in Zimbabwe and Laos.
• Outcomes (What did CH deliver?)
  • CH did not respond to the request in the AIS 2015 for a description of its outcomes.
• Impact (How were people’s lives improved?)
  • Nothing found.

Size of Charity

• With a revenue of $259K, CH only just qualifies in this category. (No financial statements would be required otherwise.)

Financial Year End

• This means that the next financial report is due by 31 December 2016 (or 31 January 2017 if the ACNC is generous again). 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]

• CH calls for donations on its website.
• And on GiveNow.
• It holds a fundraising licence in only its home state.
  • Apart from exemptions, whether it needs such a licence in the other six states that have a licensing regime depends on whether those states think that CH, by calling for donations publicly, is ‘fundraising’ in their territory.

CHARITY’S DOCUMENT (SIC)

• There is no Annual Report/Review available on the ACNC Register.
• Nor on the CH website.

RESPONSIBLE PERSONS

No. of Australian ‘responsible person’ positions[iv]

John Edwards            This function was not working at the time of publication

Tracey Murfit

Paul Symons

Phil Sparrow

Jason James

Stephen Dewing

• Rather than fix it, CH said, in their AIS 2015, that this list is not ‘complete, current and accurate’. It may still be.
• Missing, compared to the website, are June Angus and Sharon Copich.
• The website has James as the Secretary and Symons as the Vice Chairman.
  • Changing the ‘Position’ column to match this would make the list comply with the constitution.
• Compared to the situation at 11 October 2015 (the Financial Report), June Angas has been replaced by Tracey Murfet, and Brian Thompson and Glynn Jenkins have left the board.  

(End of review of the ACNC Register information)

Latest financial report – detail

• The directors’ belief that CH is not a ‘reporting entity’, a choice that allows them to make less than a full disclosure about CH’s finances and operations, and implicitly a statement that any user is able to command the preparation of a financial report tailored to their needs, is difficult to reconcile with their claim that the accounts show a ‘true and fair view’.
• The Notes to the Financial Statements are missing the most important Note, Note 1. This Note is foundational to understanding not only CH’s accounting and reporting choices, but also its position and results.

The Auditors (sic) Independence Declaration (page 3 of the Financial Report)

• The ACNC does not require this to be lodged.

An independent opinion on the financial statements – the Independent Auditor’s Report… (page 4 of the Financial Report)

• This is a ‘clean’ opinion.  Read here and here to draw the right conclusions from this.

Committee of Management’s Report (page 6 of the Financial Report)

• No such report is required by the ACNC.
• It should be signed on behalf of the Committee, and by somebody in their capacity as a Committee member
• Missing sections:
  • Objectives
  • Strategy for achieving the objectives
  • Performance measures
• Incomplete sections:
  • Committee members – but see the Notes
• Sections included but not required:
  • Operating result
  • Accounting policies

Where the directors put their name to the Report – the Statement by the Committee of Management (page 7 of the Financial Report)

• This should be signed on behalf of the Committee, and by somebody in their capacity as a Committee member

What was earned, what was consumed during the year – the Statement of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income (page 8 of the Financial Report)

• The section ‘Other Comprehensive Income’ is missing.
• Contrary to the Accounting Standards, the expenses are a mixed classification.
• The $85K ‘Employment’ expenses are for one part-time and one casual employee (AIS 2015).
• Fundraising and superannuation expenses are not disclosed.
• To whom were the ‘Donations’ made?
• What are ‘Program expenses’ as distinct from all the other expenses of running the programs listed here?
• ‘Administration’ was 6% of expenses.=
  • But what is the definition of ‘Administration’? ‘Travel’, for instance, was another 20% of expenses.

Essential information to go with the figures – the Notes to the Financial Statements (page 13 of the Financial Report)

• Note 1, the most important Note, is missing.
• Note 4: a security deposit is not a receivable.
• Note 5: These are not all payables.
• Missing Notes
  • Critical accounting estimates and judgement
  • Contingent liabilities
  • Commitments

Membership of accountability organisations claimed

• None claimed. CH 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] This is the unregistered business name of Australian Churches of Christ Global Mission Partners.

[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] 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.