[committee] With regards to incorporation and allegations of bank and insurance fraud

[Tom Almeida]

Dear all,

There have, from the start of this year, been allegations of misconduct in
2010 with regards to bank and insurance fraud. After having reviewed
everything I can from that time period, I believe I currently have enough
information to comment on the matter.

Let us start with incorporation.

UCC incorporated as a result of an SGM on the 16th of December, 2010. This
SGM was called by this email
<https://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/ucc-announce/2010-December/000435.html>,
stating that the UCC Executive has called for an SGM with the topic of club
incorporation. You can find an agenda for this meeting here
<https://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/ucc-announce/2010-December/000436.html>
and minutes here
<https://www.ucc.asn.au/infobase/minutes/2010/SGM-2010-12-16.txt>.
Discussion for incorporation had previously been mentioned in this thread
<https://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/committee/2010-October/004149.html>,
as well as these threads
<https://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/ucc/2010-October/thread.html>
and these committee meetings (1
<https://www.ucc.asn.au/infobase/minutes/2010/2010-09-30.txt>, 2
<https://www.ucc.asn.au/infobase/minutes/2010/2010-10-28.txt>). It has been
previously believed that incorporation occurred due to this email
<https://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/committee/2010-October/004135.html>,
however that email did not actually end up leading to the SGM which caused
incorporation, and it is my understanding that the documents required by
Westpac actually turned out to be proof of address documents. Interestingly
enough, while I was researching this I found that SOC actually wanted UCC
to become incorporated in 2001
<https://www.ucc.asn.au/infobase/minutes/2000/2000-45.txt>, however it
ended up falling through.

>From there, lets move to the creation of the UCC Westpac account. There
have been a number of allegations specifying that the bank account was
opened with the claim that we were a non-profit despite not officially
having that label due to the amount of money claimed from insurance. The
Westpac bank account was actually opened by the committee from the year
before the storms occurred, as seen in these minutes
<https://www.ucc.asn.au/infobase/minutes/2009/2010-01-13.txt>, while the
storm actually occurred on the 21st and 22nd of March
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Western_Australian_storms>. As
previously stated, the only additional information that was required by
Westpac after opening the bank account was proof of address, and as such I
believe I can state that no misconduct occurred.

With regards to possible insurance fraud, I actually have a list in my
Treasurer draw from 2010 listing all the possible items that can be
claimed, as well as quotes from suppliers. More than a third of the items
listed as claimable are actually marked as "probably repairable", which
means that they were not claimed for. As such, UCC potentially could have
claimed significantly more money from insurance than we did. Once again,
the committee minutes from March 26th until the money came was received in
mid-August, as well as emails from the ucc@ and committee@ mailing lists
for that time period provide plenty of information about the situation.
Again, I believe I can state that no misconduct occurred with regards to
the insurance claim.

I hope this helps clear everything up.

Kind regards,
Tom Almeida [THA]
UCC Treasurer
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