Archived: Genesis Counselling And Training Service Inc., charity review

This is a charity review, a review for those with an interest in the Australian charity Genesis Counselling And Training Service Inc. (GCT).

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 GCT.

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 22 March 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:
  1. For each heading in the register entry, first read the information under that heading.
  2. Then check if that heading is included below. (Headings for which there is no comment are not included.)
• 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 names
• GCT website.
• Not on FaceBook or LinkedIn.
• State government fundraising licence registers.
• No reviews on Glassdoor yet.

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Entity Subtype

• A ‘Christian organisation’ yet not one of the four, even the last one, is Advancing religion.
• Although the aim of GCT is to be a witness for Jesus by doing good, and the first object is to ‘provide Biblically based counselling to any member of the community’, there is no mention of sharing the Gospel by word.

CHARITY DETAILS

Legal Name

• GCT is a WA incorporated association (No. A0821955W).
• GCT reports that they have a Board of Directors in both Kenya and Uganda. Nowhere is the relationship between GCT and these two organisations explained.

Other Name(s)

• This is a name that GCT uses, but in order to continue to use it legally it needs to register it as a business name.

Charity ABN

• Their claim of tax deductibility is confirmed.

Charity Address for Service

• I have no reason to believe that this doesn’t work.

Charity Street Address

• Postal address, from the website: PO Box 223, Cannington 6987, Western Australia

Email

• I have no reason to believe that this doesn’t work.

Phone

• From the website: 08 9356 1201

Website

• From the Google search: http://www.genesisaid.com/

ANNUAL REPORTING

• AIS 2015
  • This is GCT’s compulsory Annual Information Statement 2015 (AIS 2015).
  • It gives basic financial information. If you think that this might be sufficient for you
    • The financial statements are not of the general purpose type as GCT claim. They are the less stringent special purpose financial statements.
    • ‘Grants and donations…’ are labelled ‘Counselling and Training Support’ in the income statement
• Financial Report 2015
  • We do not know how long after year end the report was signed because the Statement by Committee Members is undated, as is the accountant’s ‘compilation report’.
  • The report was lodged eight months after that. (Normally this would have been two months late; however, for some reason the ACNC gave GCT an extra three months in which to lodge.)
  • The coverage of finances in this review is left until the financial report proper (see Latest financial report – detail, below). (Go straight there.)

ABOUT THE CHARITY

• Statement of Faith
  • None found on the website.
  • Nor in the constitution.
  • As a member of Missions Interlink, GCT subscribes to this one.

Date Established

• More history below the contact details here.
• Cheryl’s story.

Who the Charity Benefits

• Vision and Mission
  • None found.
• Activities (What did GCT do?)
  • From the Description of charity’s activities and outcomes in the AIS 2015:
    • Counselling individuals and families in the areas of addictions, mental illness and social problems. International aid relief work and liaison with other organisations similarly engaged. Encouraging active participation by indigenous persons in all locations. Provision of medical facilities. Improving the quality of life of those less fortunate by teaching income generation.
      • Not particular to 2015?
      • GCT also said in its AIS 2015 that it intended to change the way it ‘pursues its charitable purposes’:
        • Extension of support for impoverished widows and wider education of children from a younger age.
  • There is a description, including history, on the website, of each of their current projects.
• Outcomes (What did GCT deliver?)
  • GCT did not respond to the request in the AIS 2015 for a description of its outcomes.
  • Nothing found on the website.
• Impact (How were people’s lives improved?)
  • Nothing found.

Size of Charity

• Last year GCT was $52K over the threshold for this size; this year they are $56K under.

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)[ii]

• Despite the information in the AIS 2105, GCT does not have a fundraising licence in this state.
• GCT calls for donations on its website.
  • It doesn’t have a fundraising licence in any of the other six states that have a licensing regime.
    • Apart from exemptions, whether it needs such a licence in these states depends on whether they think that GCT, 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 GCT website.

RESPONSIBLE PERSONS

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

Cheryl Compagnone      This function was not working at the time of publication

Joesph Compagnone

Esther Koh

Anne Peletier

Jennifer Watkins

Jan Peletier

Nigel Merrick

Charles Fallon

Cheryl Compagnone

Esha Begho

• Cheryl is duplicated.
• There appear to be at least two couples on this committee.
• Compared to the website, this list
  • Has Cheryl with a different last name
  • Includes Esther Koh and Esha Begho instead of Bill Woodage and Vicki Woodage.
• A Secretary is required in order to comply with the constitution.
• Compared to the Committee Members (sic) Report, Rochelle Merrick is missing. 

(End of review of the ACNC Register information)

Latest financial report – detail

• This report is grossly deficient:
  • There is no audit report.
  • Two of the four required financial statements are missing.
  • The Profit & Loss Statement
    • Does not disclose ‘Other comprehensive income’
    • Does not disclose the following expenses: superannuation, employee benefits, administration, and fundraising.
  • Two extra statements are included:
    • a Detailed Profit & Loss Statement, and
    • an (unsigned) Accountant’s Report (not an audit) by the tax agent who prepared the statements.
  • The Detailed Profit & Loss Statement
    • Deducts tax, called ‘Refundable Credits’ from ‘Operating profit (loss) before income tax’ even though GCT is exempt from tax.
    • Makes a transfer from Retained profits to create a liability, Future Sponsorship Account. Liabilities are therefore overstated by $382K, and reserves understated by the same amount.
  • In the Notes to and forming part of the Financial Statements
    • The all-important Note 1 has very little of what is required, and most of that is incorrect.
    • Nearly all the other required Notes are missing.
  • The Committee Members’ Report has
    • only two of the five required sections
    • two sections that are not required
    • no date when it was signed.
  • The committee members, in putting their name to the accounts, in the (undated) Statement by Committee Members, say that
    • anybody needing information about GCT can request reports tailored to their needs. Did the committee realise what they were saying?
    • No Accounting Standards other than AASB 1025 apply to GCT. This is not true.
    • Statements of Accounting Concepts are not applicable to GCT.  This is not true.
    • ‘The accounts of the Association have been properly prepared by a competent person’.
• Given the mission, why would a charity hovering around $250K turnover hold $192K in the bank and have $175K invested?
  • Especially when it says that “We reserve the right to redirect designated funds to the area of greatest need”.

Membership of accountability organisations claimed

• None claimed. GCT 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 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.’

[iii] 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.