Yesterday morning I rang Gary Swift, CEO ACIL, to see where we were at regarding the 2011 AFSL accounts. He told me “I expect to be able to supply them in the next day or two.” Upon asking the reason for the delay I was told there were some issues to be sorted out.
At 9.19 am I sent an email to Gary Swift asking what those issues were.
At 10.03 am I received a copy of the accounts.
I am pleased that whatever those issues were, they were sorted out within the hour.
The position is even worse than I had predicted and gives a very good example of why Councils should not get involved in businesses that are non-core services.
The bottom line is a loss of $2.355m compared with a $558,000 loss the previous year. This is a rapidly depreciating business and I do not believe the $1.515m paid for Tony Tay Film Limited was a bargain. Time will tell. I was right when I expressed my concerns about Tony Tay Film Limited in June 2010. That was over a year ago. At that time one Waitakere City Councillor told me if the Council was to sell its share in the Film Studios there would be a queue of buyers waiting to purchase it. If that was the case believe they should have sold to the first buyer in the queue. The business was worth considerably more then. Various Councillors told me they were kept fully informed through FOP (Finance and Operational Performance) committee meetings. Yet I found as late as October 2010 a number were not even aware the management company had become insolvent in 2009.
The tragedy is that we now have a situation of an asset worth more for its land development potential than it is as a going concern, yet Council has now committed a further $1.515m and locked itself in for another 3 years to operate as a Film Studio to avoid having to repay the Government $1m.
Total Assets:
31/3/08 $14.968m
31/3/09 $13.275m
31/3/10 $11.243m
31/3/11 $8.347m
Net Loss:
31/3/09 $2,245,519
31/3/10 $557,742
31/3/11 $2,354,587
Recent media reports:
www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/5446565/Auckland-film-studios-a-bargain
www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/5451584/Studio-deal-defended
For a copy of the 2011 AFSL accounts email me at
Accountability in Auckland Council 