Welcome to the blog of NSW strata investigative journalism
| From: | SP52948 owner |
|---|---|
| To: | Robert Crosbie Waratah Strata Management |
| Subject: | SUMMARY: Tenders for Macquarie Gardens SP52948 strata and building management failed to be included in agenda for AGM 2020 as of 30Sep2020 |
| Date: | 30/9/20, 6:17 pm |
Good evening,
Agenda for AGM 2020 has just been published.
a) Motion for strata management contract WAS NOT INCLUDED, in spite of advanced notices and duly provided quotes.
It effectively excludes all other quotes for strata management
at general meeting although Waratah Strata Management gave
commitment to include them on 28 September 2020 and had advanced
notice since 30 July 2020
("SP52948-Waratah-Strata-Management-email-about-Motions-for-strata-and-building-management-28Sep2020.webp").
Since October 2019, legal request has been raised about validity of AGM 2019 and evidence to be provided if it complied with SSMA 2015 and SSMR 2016 (agenda sent as per Interpretation Act 1987, ONLY financial owners allowed to vote, owner's Motions allowed to be voted on, and ONLY fully financial owners allowed to be members of the committee). Strata manager and committee members did not reply so far.
Last time, such request has been officially lodged by O'Brien
Criminal & Civil Solicitors on 24 April 2020.
b) Motion for building manager (attachment "SP52948-Motion-8-agenda-AGM-2020-incomplete-caretaker-contract-published-on-30Sep2020.webp") only lists proposal for renewal for the current provider, effectively excluding all other building management quotes.
c) Motions from Lot 158 were mostly excluded for AGM 2020, without legal reason, including this one which is of high importance for fire and occupational health safety:
Motion: Ratify events related Special Resolution 25 at AGM
2016
The Owners Corporation SP52948 by ORDINARY RESOLUTION,
confirms the following:
At AGM 2016, Lot 158 submitted Motion 25 as Special
Resolution:
Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment
It was approved with:
49 votes Yes
11 votes No
BCS Strata Management and Waratah Strata Management failed to
register this Special By-Law within six months of its approval.
Waratah Strata Management and committee members failed to comply with AGM 2016 Motion 25.1 requiring owners corporation to obtain OH&S Risk Assessment before AGM 2017, 2018, and 2019.
The provisions of the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 and
the Work Health & Safety Regulation 2017 require that the
owners corporation provide and maintain the common property to:
o Ensure it is safe and without risk to the health of
contractors and others who may use it.
o Agree to undertake ongoing risk management assessment to
identify and eliminate any such risks.
One way to undertake such risk management is to have an
independent expert inspect the common property (on a regular
basis) and report to the owners corporation any identified
risks. This is commonly known as a Safety Audit or a Work Health
& Safety Audit and should highlight anything unsafe or
potentially hazardous.
For 24 years, owners were never allowed to discuss or make proper
plans for 10-Year Sinking (now called Capital Works) Fund Plan at
general meetings.
As of today, Auditor's report has not been provided to owners in the agenda, and not listed on the website portal.
In 2019, Lot 158 offered FREE forensic auditor
(reputable CPA) to verify financial books of SP52948, but strata
manager declined to notify owners. Waratah Strata Management
allegedly suffered two data losses in 2018 and 2019, claiming that
many files (emails, invoices, and so on) were permanently lost.
Regards,
On 29/9/20 9:06 am, SP52948 owner wrote:
An update.
Current strata manager sent a belated response after 18:00 hour last night (28 September 2020), giving ultimatum to us to provide quotes for strata and building management tenders by today. It was rushed but we managed to comply, to avoid any risk of "procedural errors".
We did it last night (quotes were redacted with PDF and DOC editors to remove ONLY the pricing figures and the rest were left intact). Here are extracts from what we stated:
On 30 July 2020, request was sent to provide us with names of the valid members of the committee who should to collect the quotes as they cannot go to strata agency for obvious reasons (conflict of interest). Enclosed herewith are the quotes, but without pricing. If a specific FINANCIAL member of the committee wishes to obtain pricing now, the best option is to:
Contact each company in person (details are in their bids).
All companies are fully aware of the process by which contracts were won in previous 24 years. We explained to them why we suggested to keep the prices undisclosed until the meeting due to past experiences with predatory pricing in the complex, and they fully supported our ethical and professional approach.
...
At the same time, in accordance with SSMA 2015, motions on the agenda can be changed at the meeting, except for:
The subject matter of the motion,
Motions determined by pre-meeting electronic voting.
...
It is important to state that at previous general meetings it was common not to even list pricing for contracts (as strange as it sounds because owners were literally "signing a blank cheque"). We all know the examples of them.
To remove any doubts of tampering with the original files (which we would never do anyway as our ethics and morality is not for sale), here are the digital signatures for all original files from the vendors (that include pricing) as of this morning. These signatures cannot be forged without being detected in IT forensics, so it is safe to say that we cannot modify them without being caught in fraud...Signatures of digitally-signed encrypted files were given to the current strata manager. The digital signing key expires on 30 May 2023.
Tenders are a serious matter and we take extreme pride and care to act with duty of care and equal respect for all companies.
Regards,
On 26/9/20 7:35 am, SP52948 owner wrote:
Good morning,
Thank you for your time an efforts to consider and submit quotes for strata or building management contracts (including gardening and security).
As the notice of general meeting (scheduled for 22 October 2020) has not been sent or finalized by the strata managers (we checked website portal this morning and it was also confirmed by the current strata manager yesterday), this email is part of evidence collected in case your quotes are not allowed or are deliberately misrepresented to owners at general meeting. The email is a safeguard that YOUR EFFORTS and HARD WORK FOR SUBMITTING QUOTES ARE NOT WASTED and that you have legal rights to be considered for winning the contract with SP52948. For example, if the current building management staff are allowed to speak or attend the general meeting, it would be a gross misconduct and negligence, and amount to illegal process for not allowing you to be given the same chance of representation.
After the general meeting, as per best professional practices, each vendor should be called for debriefing by the members of the committee, to explain why they won or lost the bid.
SP52948-Waratah-Strata-Management-email-about-Motions-for-strata-and-building-management-28Sep2020
SP52948-Motion-8-agenda-AGM-2020-incomplete-caretaker-contract-published-on-30Sep2020