Aboriginal charity helps its own.
Charity houses its board, family
KATHLEEN SKENE | May 11th, 2011
A COMPANY set up as a charity for indigenous housing is providing homes for members of its board and their family.
Public records show a Kirwan home owned by the ABIS Community Co-operative Society is occupied by one of its directors, Angie Akee.
Ms Akee's sister Agnes Tapim is the chairwoman of the society, which receives generous tax breaks through its registration as a charitable institution.
Homes occupied by another of Ms Akee's sisters, Sandra Santo, and another director, Mamam Martin, are also owned by ABIS.
Names of the ABIS directors were obtained from the Office of Fair Trading, their addresses through the electoral roll and the property ownership through an online database. Among the directors named in the Fair Trading records are two women, believed to be Ms Akee's aunts, one of her Townsville Aboriginal and Islanders Health Services workmates and one deceased man who is listed twice as a director.
Ms Akee's involvement with a number of indigenous organisations was questioned in a special report in Saturday's Townsville Bulletin. She is in a $120,000- a-year paid position with TAIHS.
Her sister, Ms Santo, is a director on the TAIHS board.
Yesterday, Ms Akee did not want to answer or even hear the claims, saying she did not need to defend herself as she had done nothing wrong.
"I'm not prepared to make any more statements about me," she said.
"These people running off to (Herbert MP Ewen) Jones - you need to question them about their actions. What are they doing about homelessness in our community, deaths in custody and the health and education of our people?"
Townsville City Council community safety committee chairman Dale Last, who has been working on possible solutions for homelessness in the city, said the revelations were disappointing.
"You would like to think that all the relevant government organisations and authorities set up to deal with these issues are generally working towards providing accommodation," he said.
"It disappoints me to hear stories such as this when there are so many people working so hard to solve these particular problems.
There's an extraordinary amount of money that gets spent on these particular issues in this city and we really have to question whether there is any headway being made in terms of addressing these problems, and situations such as this certainly don't help."
Speaking about co-operative societies in general, local lawyer Evan Sarinas said providing private benefits clashed with societies' registration as a charitable institution.
"It is incongruous for a charity's objects to provide for private benefits," he said.
Australian Government records show that ABIS is exempt from income tax, receives a rebate on Fringe Benefits Tax and a concession on GST.
An Australian Taxation Office spokesman yesterday said the status of charitable entities could be reviewed, with their status revoked and tax concessions repaid if necessary.
"Where an entity is no longer considered to be charitable it is no longer entitled to charitable tax concessions and standard business taxes would apply," he said.
"This action could also be retrospective where an entity is found to have not been a charity for a period of time.
"The ATO grants charitable status ... and certain elements, such as being not-for-profit and not making distributions to members must be clearly included.
"If the organisations is incorporated it may be subject to further legal activity for acting contrary to the terms of its incorporation which may take place at the state or territory level."
What the Bulletin says ...
THE latest revelations about largesse within the local Aboriginal elder community is a disgrace and grounds for a full and open inquiry.
A company set up as a charity for indigenous housing is providing homes for members of its board and their family, even though several family members earn more than $100k a year.
Public records show a Kirwan home owned by the ABIS Community Co-operative Society is occupied by one of its directors - Angie Akee.
Angie's sister Agnes Tapim is the chair of the society, which receives generous tax breaks through its registration as a charitable institution.
A home occupied by another of Angie's sisters, Sandra Santo, is also owned by ABIS.
Federal MP Ewen Jones has questioned the labyrinth of organisations being run by the Akee family in Townsville, unsuccessfully seeking an audit of their books.
Labor politicians such as Mandy Johnstone, Jenny Macklin and Karen Struthers have become strangely silent since the latest revelations were made public.
This is taxpayers' money that is being used. We deserve answers. The sooner the blowtorch is applied to the way the funding is distributed, the better.
http://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/article/2011/05/11/229901_news.html