Kostas Karamarkos

 

IS THE GREEK ORTHODOX COMMUNITY OF MELBOURNE AND VICTORIA (#GOCMV) A FINANCIALLY VULNERABLE ORGANISATION?

An unknown number of current financial members of the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria (GOCMV), received at approximately 9:30 pm last night, the notice for the 2023 Annual General Meeting, which is to be held at 12 noon, at Alphington Grammar School, on Sunday 18 February 2024.

As a member of the COCMV for more than 40 years, I note the following.

1. The practice in the past few decades was for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) notice to be mailed out to the membership 21 days in advance. I received the AGM notice via email last night at the end of February 5 (less than 13 full days). Furthermore, quite a few first-generation members of the organisation, who do not have email addresses, will be even more handicapped! They will receive the Annual General Meeting notice later and they won’t have the opportunity for example to raise issues at the AGM, given that the deadline for the notification for issues to be discussed, is 7 days prior to the Annual General Meeting.

2. The practice during the past few decades, was for the financial statement of the organisation to be ratified at a formal meeting of the board of directors. I do not know when the board of the GOCMV met for this purpose, but as stated in the audited report, there was a resolution approving it.

3. Given that the board passed a resolution approving the audited report, I’d love to know how the directors responded to the overall loss of $2.9 million for the financial year ending in June 2023. What concerns did they raise?

4. Especially, considering that the $2.5 million promised by the federal government, for the Russel St Hub have not been received yet. The same goes for the $1.8 million promised before the last federal election in May 2022, by the current Labor federal government. When does the board expect to receive these money? In the previous audited report of the GOCMV, it was noted that the organisation would expect to receive the $2.5 federal grant in the financial year 2023.

5. Furthermore, it is only reasonable to expect to get an answer to the question as to why the salary bill has been increased by almost $1 million. Were all these new employees needed? When did the board decide to employee these additional employees? What are their job descriptions? What are their key performance indicators? Is their employment viable and aligned with the strategic objectives of the Community?

6. As far as I can remember, we can all go back to the audited reports of previous years, the education budget was always breaking even, or if it was running at a loss, it was a loss of a few tens of thousands of dollars. NOW the loss is in the vicinity of $945,000! Why? Why this explosion? How come and in the past the organisation was offering top quality educational services without incurring such losses?

7. Can the GOCMV afford to continue to subsidise the annual losses of its churches? The losses in the past financial year were in the vicinity of $350,000.

8. What is the annual loss of the Antipodes (Lonsdale Street) Festival? Considering that the combined state government and City of Melbourne annual financial support in the form of grants is $320,000? How can we finance, how can we manage better, the collective annual public celebration of our identity in Melbourne?

9. The functions loss, as stated in the audited report, is approximately $1.7 million. What else is losing money and why? What does the leadership of the organisation intend to do, in order to address these loses?

10. Finally, the BIG QUESTION. Is the GOCMV able to generate enough income from its activities to keep the organisation going and solvent? Or… We will be forced to ask the Greek government to step in again, like it did in the early 1990s, when the Community was just about to go bankrupt and the government of Andreas Papandeou stepped in and donated money in the vicinity of $15 million in today’s prices, money that stopped the insolvency?