Jim Golden-Brown – accused of misusing credit cards and overspending at four Aboriginal charities – now chairs a $20 million body caring for elders.
Community Care Services Inc has, since 1995, looked after elders in and around the city, since expanding to Coober Pedy and Port Augusta, and is now operating across all major communities in the APY Lands in the north-western desert of South Australia.
The ACQSC said it audited ACS in February 2022 and found it was non-compliant with six out seven quality standards, including in ongoing assessment with consumers, personal and clinical care, services and support for daily living, complaints handling, human resources and organisational governance. The ACQSC says it continues to engage with ACS.
Neither Mr Golden-Brown, Mr Harun, Mr Aitken, Aboriginal Community Services, or their legal representatives responded to questions or requests for comment.Mr Golden-Brown’s tenure as CEO of NATSIC began in June 2016, five years before his eventual termination in 2021.At the NATSIC general meeting in May 2021, the group’s members also removed Mr Aitken and Mr Harun, who were aligned to the sacked CEO.
Queensland barrister Christopher Mr Watters was hired to investigate Mr Golden-Brown’s conduct at NATSIC in mid-2021, in a probe that examined reams of credit card activity and interviewed witnesses. “The constant, extensive and repeated expenditure on alcohol is inappropriate. The continual and excessive use of high-end accommodation in luxury hotels cannot be justified. Personal expenses, shopping and visits to family members is unacceptable.
With NATSIC in crisis and unable to secure further funding, creditors agreed to wind up the organisation in May 2022, and brought in Grant Thornton liquidators Tony Jonsson and Cameron Crichton to comb over its remaining assets. Creditors to NATSIC tried to recoup assets, such as a leased fleet of Toyota vehicles, which were suspected to be in the possession of Mr Golden-Brown’s new employer, Aboriginal Community Services.
But Mr Golden-Brown eventually said he decided to return the cars, and that he had posted the car keys and a list of locations to the federal senator responsible for the grant that had funded the cars. Federal funding for the organisation, which has since been renamed the Mala’la Health Service Aboriginal Corporation, was $2.5 million for the 2009-2010 financial year, when Mr Golden-Brown was CEO, under his previous name, Jim Sturgeon.
“The board responded to the issues by advising that they had concerns about the performance of the current CEO, Jim Sturgeon. They also raised concerns about funds being used for items that were not related to service delivery, for example, the long-term rental of an apartment in Darwin and a concern the CEO was often absent from the community.
The Deloitte review carried out in August 2010 estimated Malabam had been so poorly managed that it overspent its funding by $728,000, including by allocating money to expenses not aligned with its approved budgets. He abruptly left the position in May 2013, publicly stating he had resigned from the organisation to live closer to his daughter in the east of the state.However, his departure coincided with a probe into the company by Tasmanian business consultants Danny and Natasha Keep, who were appointed by the Officer of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations.
Barengi Gadjin’s financial accounts show its expenses surged 51 per cent to $1.4 million between 2012 and 2013, while revenue shrunk 15 per cent to $1.1 million over the same period. Payments to suppliers doubled during the same period. Mr Golden-Brown was prosecuted for this at the Moree Local Court in 2010, and was convicted in absence, having left the state after the bank accounts were frozen.
Yet, the probe run by DSS manager Ryan Sandeman, a Canberra-based investigations manager with the department, has been plagued by difficulties.
United Kingdom Latest News, United Kingdom Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Artificial intelligence uncovers lost work by titan of Spain’s ‘Golden Age’Discovery of Lope de Vega play could lead to other important finds, researchers say
Read more »
Chalmers sounds like a ‘smart first-year university essay’: MorrowSky News host James Morrow says Treasurer Jim Chalmers’s latest essay on “rethinking capitalism” sounds like a “smart first-year university essay” amid his super policy proposal. “There’s one thing he talks about doing and that is making your super invest in unprofitable government projects, in housing, in climate, in the environment,” Mr Morrow said. “So now the question is, who would stand between Jim Chalmers and a bucket of your super – that’s going to be the new slogan.”
Read more »
‘Nonsense and mischief’: Pat Dodson slams critics of the VoiceLabor senator and Aboriginal elder Pat Dodson has warned Australians won’t get another chance at reconciliation for another generation if the proposed Voice to parliament fails.
Read more »
‘Nonsense and mischief’: Pat Dodson slams critics of the VoiceLabor senator and Aboriginal elder Pat Dodson has warned Australians won’t get another chance at reconciliation for another generation if the proposed Indigenous Voice to parliament fails.
Read more »