Philippine Australian Community Resource Directory

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FCCVI Allegations and Concerns

There have been a number of allegations and concerns expressed in the in the Victoria community about the FCCVI about a number of issues including:

• apparent irregularities in and around the time of the recent Annual General Meeting of the FCCVI concerning the late admission of additional new organisational members of the Council;
• the conduct of the elections at the AGM despite member objections;
• the title of the Filipino Community House situated at 93 Cowper Street Footscray;
• allegations of possible financial irregularities over a period of time;
• possible criminal conduct by a member or members of the Executive Committee regarding falsification of documents per section 83A of the Crimes Act 1958 carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment if an individual is found guilty.

The current FCCVI have had an opportunity to respond to these issues and dispel these concerns. They failed to use their right of reply on National Pinoy TV and to this day still have not respond to legitimate members within their organisation. 

On the 20th of November Pinoy TV covered the continuing controversy for the fourth time in an interview with Mila Cichello and Vytautas Valasinavicius which identified the current constitution as the root cause of current problems and suggested a way to resolve these problems and ensure they do not recur in the future.

Vytautas Valasinavicius is a Barrister at Law and has prepared a Legal Opinion that details the problems with the current constitution and provides recommendations on how to correct it. 

The following is an editorial summary of the topics covered in his Legal Opinion. You can download the Legal Opinion at the bottom of this page.

LACK OF ADEQUATE GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE
The current constitution does not contain any workable grievance procedure despite this being a mandatory requirement for incorporated associations. It became law on the 1st of July 1998 for incorporated association to include a grievance procedure so the FCCVI is 7 years overdue in complying with this legal requirement.

The lack of a grievance procedure has left a number of FCCVI members feeling frustrated and disenfranchised as the current administration seems to be under no obligation to respond to member grievances.

FAILURE TO CLARIFY ISSUE OF PROXY VOTING
The current constitution does not contain any mention of Proxy Voting despite this being a mandatory requirement for incorporate association. It became law on the 7th of Jan 1987 for an incorporated association to make a ruling on whether members are entitled to vote by proxy at general meetings and include this in the associations’ constitution.  The FCCVI has never complied with this legal requirement despite it being law for the past 18 years.

The total failure to clarify a proxy voting procedure was a major point of confusion and contention at the last election.

GENERAL ELECTION ISSUES
The constitution is extremely vague with regard to how the election of executive offices and ordinary members of the Committee shall be conducted. It basically says the Committee can direct it whatever manner they deem usual and proper. This leaves the electoral process open to abuse and does not inform members of their rights and obligations.

In the last election the role of the returning officer became contentious with allegations of impartiality and bias. The current constitution does not even mention the role, authority, powers and qualifications of a returning officer. 

FAILURE TO PROVIDE INSPECTION POWERS TO MEMBERS
The Association Incorporations Act gives members the right to inspect relevant documents of their association.  The current FCCVI administration does not seem to recognise or be aware of their obligations under that Act and have not been able to be compelled to respond to repeated requests to view relevant documents of the FCCVI.  Their apparent secrecy or non disclosure of what should be public information has resulted in suspicion by FCCVI members.

There have been a number of complaints about the refusal of the FCCVI administration to supply relevant documents including the title of the property in Footscray they claim to have fully paid out, and the contact details of a large number of new members added after the closing date.

The new members’ contact details have been requested by a number of FCCVI members so that they can be satisfied of their qualifications to join and also their legitimacy. The fact that there are so many new organisations with so many not recognisable to existing members, and the failure of the FCCVI administration to provide contact details has lead to suspicions that some may not be legitimate and may have been used for purposes of electoral fraud. Click here to see the FCCVI members list

FINANCIAL MATTERS
There have been concerns expressed about financial irregularities that again may be fuelled by the failure of the current FCCVI administration to provide members with their legal right of inspection (item 14 of the Schedule of the Act).  While the current FCCVI constitution does have provision for internal and external auditing this serves little purpose if an administration fails in its obligation to be accountable to its members.

The FCCVI is in command of significant financial resources comprising of fund raising, property and government grants (tax payers money) which can be a source of real or perceived temptation. The current FCCVI may be acting in a totally proper manner with regard to financial matters but it needs to conduct itself with more transparency ensuring that it meets the minimum checks and balances as required by law.

POSSIBLE MEMBER LIABILITY
One of the most disturbing inclusions in the current FCCVI constitution is rule 64 which in simple terms gives the FCCVI administration a blank cheque book. Not only do they have a blank cheque book but they can incur whatever debt they authorise and if the current financial reserves of the FCCVI can not repay the debt the members of the FCCVI are all liable. 

CONCLUSION
The current FCCVI constitution is not legally compliant and fails to meet the needs of the current members. The constitution has now been examined by two different legal professionals and both conclude that it is poorly written and a new one should be drafted. A strong legally compliant constitution the FCCVI will automatically address most of the concerns above.

The current FCCVI administration will be formally requested to form a working committee to draft a new legally compliant constitution based on the model rules and modified for the specific needs of the Filipino community. If they fail to do that then the current constitution provides for 5% of FCCVI members to request a special meeting where the need for a new constitution can be voted on by members. If this second process were to be frustrated the Associations Incorporation Act provides for a single member to pursue the matter through the courts and force legal compliance of the constitution. 

Ms Kristina Bautista - Nov 2005

DOWNLOAD THE FULL LEGAL OPINION HERE
(note: you will need the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it which you can obtain HERE)

Click here to download the current Filipino Community Council of Victoria Inc. Constitution
as amended and submitted to Consumer Affairs Victoria (Word Format)

On the 29th of December a Complaint and Statement of Claim was lodged at the Sunshine Magistrates’ Court

Read the Magistrates’ Court Complaint & Statement of Claim here

Open Letter from FAFAGI to all Victorian Filipinos explaining the need for legal action

Read the FAFAGI Open Letter here

PhilAus.com publishes information of interest or concern on behalf of the Filipino communities in Australia. We strongly support the right of all groups to express their opinion and also fully support the right of reply.

We invite the current FCCVI administration to respond to the information provided to us by concerned FCCVI members and we will provide the FCCVI administration and opposition with equal space including hosting any supporting documentation for public download.

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