The members of the Gloucester Park Harness Racing Club, or at least a decent sized chunk of them, are clearly not satisfied with the answers they are getting to key questions about the sale of half of the club’s prime real estate on the Swan River, and have successfully petitioned to have a Special Meeting held next Monday evening to try to get the board to address the key issues that they seem to be ducking.
Here are just some of them.
1 – How did a company get a contract worth tens of millions of dollars to redevelop GP land without the job going to tender?
2 – Why has the land being sold not been put put for tender or bids?
3 – How did it come to be that a company part-owned and directed by the Vice-President of the club’s son was gifted the contract in the absence of any competitive tender process?
4 – Notwithstanding that the Vice-President stood aside from voting on the development AFTER his son’s company had been handed the contract on a platter, do the elected Directors truly believe that this whole thing passes the pub test?
5 – What relevance does it have that discussions with previous developers focused on shifting harness racing to a new location, when those discussions were initiated by the club not the developer, who was presumably simply working to the club’s specifications?
6 – When single houses on 600m lots in streets adjoining Gloucester Park are selling for over a million dollars, how can almost 6 hectares of club land be worth just the $10 million that the Jeavons family linked company is paying to acquire it?
7 – Why is the $10 million that the developer is paying being received in 5 annual instalments of $2 million?
8 – Why isn’t it being paid up front?
9 – Why will the club not give its own members copies of all relevant documents – including consultants reports, the most recent property valuation, copies of the relevant board meeting minutes – prior to the Special General Meeting so that members have time to read and digest them?
10 – Given that the members own the club and not the other way around, what is the reason for all the secrecy?
11 – Why wasn’t the contract for ‘financial advice’ and ‘negotiation’ put out to open tender?
12 – How could it possibly cost $15 million to maintain the existing structures at the track – the racing infrastructure, admin buildings and grandstands – when their actual value as recorded in the Annual Reports is less than $6 million?
13 – Where is a copy of the alleged independent valuation that came up with this ridiculously high number?
14 – Who did the valuation?
15 – When?
16 – Why does the club keep talking about due diligence when the term refers to thoroughly checking the finances and accounts of a company prior to a takeover or acquisition, not to a contract to sell land or develop it?
These are the questions that need to be answered, and of course there are more.
Nothing about this smells right.
Let’s hope the members press their points and find out what is really going on here under the surface, and how it could possibly have come to the point where they have to raise a petition just to get answers on basic things that they are entitled to know.
We look forward to a report after Wednesday night’s meeting.