Archived: Cosmos Healthcare Incorporated: mini charity review

Mini charity review of Cosmos Healthcare Inc (CH) an organisation that seeks donations online, and is exempt from Australian income tax via its membership of Missions Interlink. (Including the answers to the questions that the Australian charity regulator, the ACNC, suggests that you ask.)

For the previous review, see here.

Is it responsive to feedback?

• I sent them a draft of this review on 21 August 2017. They…did not respond.

Is CH registered?

• As a charity, yes.
• CH is a WA incorporated association (No. A1010684A).
• They trade under the name Cosmos Healthcare, a name that is not registered.
• CH operates, per the ACNC Register, only in Western Australia. It has a fundraising licence there.
  • Whether it needs one in the other five states that have a licensing regime depends on whether those states think that inviting donations via the internet is ‘fundraising’.

What do they do?

• They are, in their words, ‘an intercontinental healthcare organisation’. Read more here.
  • They operate, per the ACNC Register, only in Zimbabwe.
• There’s a good description of what they did in 2016 in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) 2016:
  • Some of Cosmos Healthcare’s purposes are to provide access for people in developing nations to quality health care, health education and water initiatives. In 2016 we assisted a trusted partner organisation in Zimbabwe to deliver cost effective, well managed mobile health services to reach eight communities on a regular basis with clinical care and health education. Cosmos Healthcare also assisted their partners to deliver a water project in Zimbabwe, helping a community of 1200 people access reliable water sources through rain water harvesting and well construction. Cosmos Healthcare sent two primary health teams to Zimbabwe in 2016, consisting of volunteer doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and helpers to work with our partners to encourage, train and deliver health services to many rural communities around Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

Do they share the Gospel ^[1]?

• No
  • Which fits the absence of (a) ‘Advancing religion’ as one of the four ‘entity subtypes’ that CH have listed on the ACNC Register, and (b) Christianity in the description of its objects in the constitution.
  • But if the plan to implement Community Health Evangelism (CHE) comes to pass, sharing the Gospel will be integrated in their work.
    • How will this fit with the fact that the government allows their donors a tax deduction?

What impact are they having?

• Nothing found.

What do they spend outside the costs directly incurred in delivering the above impact, that is, on administration?

• The expenses are not classified to allow this calculation.
  • For instance, outside ‘Donations’, what portion, if any, of ‘Employment’, ‘Volunteer expenses’, and ‘Team expenses’ were direct to healthcare delivery in Zimbabwe?

Do they pay their directors?

• It is not possible to tell from the information available.

Can you get a tax deduction?

• Yes

Is their online giving secure?

• Security is not mentioned on the CH giving page, and after that page redirects to GiveNow, neither do their first two pages.

Where were the (net) donations sent?

• There is no information available.

What choices do you have in how your donation is used?

• ‘Extended Care’
  • The names of 14 people.
• ‘Medicine Supply Campaign’
• ‘General Donations’

Is their reporting up-to-date?

• Yes (seven months after year end, on the last day allowed).

Does their reporting comply with the regulator’s requirements?

• AIS 2016: Almost – no outcomes are reported
• Financial Report 2016: NA
  • As a ‘Small’ charity, CH doesn’t have to submit a Financial Report.
  • Because it has submitted one voluntarily, the Report doesn’t have to comply with the ACNC’s requirements.
  • But, as a member of Missions Interlink, it is required to ‘have available for its members and supporters a clear and appropriate financial statement which has been approved by its auditor’ [Standards Statement, 4.1].
  • The Financial Report would most likely be passed by both the ACNC and Missions Interlink, but against professional standards^[2], there’s a few things that can be questioned, all of which continue from last year:
    • The directors effectively say that anybody interested in CH can ask for a financial report tailored to their needs, thereby absolving CH from fully complying with the Accounting Standards.
    • The required reference to the ACNC Act, in the Statement by the Committee of Management, is missing.
    • The Statement of Profit or Loss and other Comprehensive Income is missing the ‘other Comprehensive Income’ section.
    • The expenses are a mixed classification.
    • Some Notes are missing.
    • Fundraising and administration expenses are not disclosed.

What financial situation was shown in that Report?

• Despite a 25% reduction in ‘Employment’ expense, a large rise in (the unexplained) ‘Team expenses’ turned a ‘profit’ of 3% of revenue into a loss of 1%.
• Relatively low liabilities (all current) means that both short- and long-term financial structure are sound.

What did the auditor say about the last financial statements?

• The auditor, Robert John Campbell CPA, of Australia Audit Group Pty Ltd, issued a ‘clean’ opinion.  Read here and here to draw the right conclusions from this.

If a charity, is their page on the ACNC Register complete?

• Yes
  • Both the website and Facebook have a different phone number: (08) 6168 1670.
  • Their trading name is missing, but trading names are largely irrelevant now.

Who are the people controlling the organisation?

• Those listed here on the website.
• Which is Darryn Rennie and Denise Nichols more than the ACNC Register (under ‘Responsible Persons’) shows:
  • Lynne Barnard
    • Is it this Lynne Barnard?
  • Paul Symons
  • Phil Sparrow
    • Is it this Phil Sparrow?
  • Jason James – the Executive Director
  • Stephen Dewing

To whom is CH accountable?

• Not mentioned on the website, but they are a member of Missions Interlink.
  • For one opinion of the strength of that accountability, see the section Activities in this review.
• Also accountable to the ACNC.
• And to the Western Australian regulator of associations.

1. “Good living and social concern are important [to the cause of evangelism], but they are not uniquely Christian graces…I’ve met a lot of fine Hindus, Muslims and atheists. Just living the life is not going to bring someone to Christ. There is much more to it than that. We must help people, certainly, but we must also share with them why we are motivated to do so. We must stand against injustice, poverty and need, but we must at the same time point to the One who brings justice and who can meet the deepest need. Until they know our reasons, how can they come to know our Lord?” [Dan Armstrong, the Fifth Gospel: The Gospel According to You, Anzea Books, pp. 13-14. ↑ ↑
2. I use the Pinnacle Financial Statements, respected in the profession as providing a very sound basis for producing compliant financial reports.  To this I add an assessment of materiality (both quantitative and qualitative), where the users being considered are donors. ↑