Review of the ABC's highest paid may reveal the few who gained at the expense of many - 58% rise in what the ABC gave its highest paid is further reason for a forensic audit of consultancies, content creation contracts entered into with current and former employees

 bby Ganesh Sahathevan 

2020-2021 

142 employees 

Total Remuneration 3,488,728

Average 24,568.51

                                                                              2021-2022

155 employees

Total Remunertaion 3,107,244

Average 20,046.74

ABC's planned job cuts   which follow  the abnormal transfer of content creation cash flows to unnamed employees suggests that a few may have benefited at the expense of many other employees.

The extracts above from the 2020/21 and 2021/22 annual reports of remuneration paid "other highly paid staff" (OHPS ,who are not executives) demonstrates how  the average paid to OHPS fell from  AUD 24,568.51 to  AUD 20,046.74  while  the highest paid in 2021/22 received an average of $ 253,502  compared to $ 160,672.67 in  2020.21. The amount paid to the very top earners rose 57.78%. 

These are matters that would concern taxpayers , and one suspects ABC employees who are being asked to resign. How these payments were justified, and financed can only be determined by a forensic audit.

TO BE READ WITH

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Discredited KPMG is the Australian Broadcasting Corp's auditor - A forensic audit by non-Big 4 accounting specialist of KPMG's audit and other work at ABC going back to at least 2016 required; consultancies, content creation contracts should be the focus

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

ABC's financial statements were audited by KPMG  which has a history of failed audits. 

While the Australian National Audit Office (ANOA) is the auditor on record (see page 139) , ANAO  contracted KPMG to provide audit services to the ABC  on its behalf (see page 152).

KPMG has a  colourful history; the USD 80 Million it paid in settlement to the Government Of Malaysia for its negligence with regards the 1MDB theft is one of its more prominent misadventures.  KPMG's attempts to evade responsibility in that matter were a matter of public record since 2015.

Coming back to the ABC, in 2017, KPMG earned in addition to its audit fee  additional fees of $1,650 (2016 $48,100) for services that were separately contracted by the ABC (see page 100).

Given the above a forensic audit by  a  non-Big 4 firm of accounting specialist  of KPMG's audit and other work at ABC going back to at least 2016 is required. Consultancie and  content creation contracts should be the focu. For the reasons why see story below.

TO BE READ WITH

ABC employee benefits expenditure rose AUD 35.266 Million in 2022, "partly due to the increased use of employees for content creation" - No indication of content contracts being put out to tender

October 21, 2023

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                                      

The extract above is from page 148 of the  Australian Broadcasting Corporation's  Annual  Report 2022. There is no indication anywhere in the 2022 annual report that these content contracts were  put out to tender.

There is no explanation as to why existing employees were paid extra, or whether some employees were offered contract creation contracts. 

There is no indication of how much the employees were paid, or what the content creation contracts were worth. There is also no indication of who these employees were. 

The claim that there was "on offsetting reduction against suppliers' expenses" states the obvious. The real question is what the cost might have been if these contracts had been put out to tender. 

END