The new Genesis Housing Group chief accountant, John Lappin, produced the accounts which show an operating profit of £5.9 million. The balance sheet shows "goodwill" amounting to £2,974,000.
After this start, inspired possibly by "Alice in Wonderland", the chairman, Dapo Ladimeji, was asked how much debt was being carried by Paddington Churches. Also, if PCHA were to have any problems with this, could this affect Pathmeads. First the answer was "Yes", then it was "No" and then it was "Yes", and then it was "No" again. Mr. Lappin was asked exactly what PCHA's debt actually was.
At this point, board member Gerald Balabanoff jumped into the fray and suggested that this was not the matter for this AGM. However, since PCHA are understood to be in hock to the tune of at least £500 million, and since the repayment of interest alone is around £100,000 per working day, and since a crash of PCHA may well have a MASSIVE effect on Pathmeads, arguably it is our business to know what PCHA are borrowing. It did not much matter in the end; Mr Lappin refused to tell.
The managing director, Mr Tom McGregor, was asked for details of how long Pathmeads tenants were in temporary accommodation for. i.e. how many for 2 years, how many for 4 years etc etc. He refused to say.
The matter of the reappointment of the auditors came up. It is generally not thought safe to use the same people year after year because they get to know their clients too well, and get too chummy and not thorough enough in their investigation of their customer. The meeting was reminded of the criticism of the Pathmeads (WHHA) auditors when WHHA crashed with debts of £3m. Mr Brian Millward said that the auditors were exonerated. True, they were not found guilty. [But how can the accounts of 1999 have been O.K. when twelve months later the whole place was on fire? Mr Millward did not seem so ready with a reply to that, and neither did Kit Wilby, who was on the board before during and after the crash, and said nothing during the entire evening]. The meeting was urged, after five years of Deloitte & Touche, to try for a change in the interests of good practice. Mr Ladimeji spoke against the idea of new auditors.
It was suggested that since the Pathmeads board has little real authority or power - for instance it has lost the power to change its own managing director - it might not actually be able to change the auditors who have been appointed to audit the parent company, Genesis. The chairman, Dapo Ladimej, was puzzled by the idea that he cannot sack the managing director.
This is surprising since Dapo Ladimeji chaired that meeting.
Needless to say, with one vote against, the shareholders reappointed Deloitte & Touche for a sixth consecutive year despite the advice of the Housing Corporation and the fact that this firm has been in the middle of three alleged international scandals recently, including the MG Rover issue.
Mr. Ladimeji comes to us from the PCHA and Genesis Management Boards.
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