From bad to worse as participants wait on answers

IF THE lack of fanfare wasn’t a sign, www.nationaltrotguide.com.au can confirm the obvious…another deadline has come and gone!

Having found itself in millions of dollars in debt, the South Australian Harness Racing Club committee elected to sell a portion of its unused land to raise money.

As such, a section was sold to a developer with the proceeds to help reduce the club’s deficit.

The deadline for the money to be received was December 2018, but that passed without the funds arriving.

Since then the club’s Presidents have been issuing statements on a regular basis about how the money will arrive at “end of the month” or “very soon” and so on.

Former President Richard Miller saw several “end of the month” timeframes pass by before losing his position.

Taking up the role late last year, Anne Mowday stated the club was due to receive the money by the end of January!

Mowday was positive the payment would arrive despite ASIC moving to “strike-off” the club’s development company GIC Globe Derby, along with other names associated with the developer in mid-January.

Shifting the goal post once again, Mowday stated the money was as good as in the bank by the end of March – today was the due date.

It didn’t take Nostradamus to predict the outcome, which is no money has arrived from the developer as of the close of business this evening.

Making matters worse, it has been reported one of the club’s lenders is no longer willing to wait and is likely to begin action against the club.

Alarmingly in a bid to fix the club’s cash flow problem while it waits for the payment, a source has revealed the committee is proposing to borrow from another lender and using Globe Derby Park as collateral.

As it stands, a creditor owns the title to the portion of land sold to the developer which means the club could be without the money and the land.

Several phone calls have failed to make contact with Mowday today, who has not returned any messages from numerous calls on almost a daily basis for the past three weeks.

It appears our office is not alone, with some of Mowday’s committee members also stating their calls and messages are not being returned as they are left in the dark about several matters of importance.

This has led to committee members issuing a complaint against Mowday with the state government agency Consumer and Business Services.

The committee members lodged the complaint via the Associations Incorporation Act with the claim Mowday called a special meeting of club members without their approval.

The source referred to the situation as going “from bad to worse as each day passes”.

Harness Racing SA is also reported to have asked CBS to investigate the club’s refusal to provide its financial records for independent assessment.