Page 833 - Week 02 - Thursday, 23 February 2012
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(1) It should be noted that income to GreaterGood figure does not represent revenue to Government. GreaterGood provides persons in the community with an opportunity to settle funds to benefit their preferred charities either through their Wills or during their life. During the reported year approximately $600,000.00 was received from persons who had either settled amounts in their Will or during their life and the remaining $400,000 was attributable to investment market recovery. This was the first year of recovery following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC).
(2) In relation to Complaints to the Ombudsman:
(a) All of the complaints received by the Ombudsman related to the Public Trustee’s role as manager appointed by the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (ACAT) under the Guardianship and Management of Property Act 1991 and concerned the Public Trustee’s management of personal funds. It should be noted that PTACT is appointed to manage these funds where the person is found to have a decision-making disability and unable to do so effectively themselves.
(b) Only a small number of the complaints were investigated by the Ombudsman and no administrative deficiency was identified. For that reason, the PTACT did not make any changes to its administrative processes.
(3) The nature of the arrangement between PTACT and ACT Treasury Directorate is such that it cost $3.8 million to operate PTACT in the reported year of which only $669,000 is guaranteed income from Government as a contribution to PTACT’s Community Service Obligations. The PTACT must continually improve its income from traditional trustee services including Wills, Estates, Powers of Attorney and Trusts. In order to ensure long term financial sustainability and security, considerable effort has been put into increasing the amount of moneys under management from government sources, court appointed disability trusts as well as from GreaterGood. Whilst these can be affected by movements in financial markets, they generally represent long-term investment income for PTACT. Income from estates is not sufficiently reliable as they vary considerably in size and value to the PTACT. It is generally thought that a solid base in investment activities will provide PTACT with a more reliable long-term hedge against fluctuating income from other sources. GreaterGood is an important part of this in that it provides significant community benefit and perpetual fund management for PTACT.
(4) In relation to staff training and development:
(a) PTACT reported on page 60 of its 2010-11 Annual Report under “Training and Development” that it had spent in the order of $20,000 on staff training and a further $17,576 of training was provided by JACS in the form of Executive Development, RED training etc. A further amount of training is provided by all staff in the form of peer training. This roughly equates to a total of $40,000 in spending on training for 38 staff i.e. $1,052 per person against an amount of $1,000 – $1,500 per staff member variously reported as best practice.
(b) PTACT is satisfied with the level of training provided to its staff against what is generally seen as best practice. The PTACT does not contribute to the JACS training levy and must generally fund the bulk of its training within budget.
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