Uproar at the RSA over poppy fund money, investigation launched

Sunday, 8 December 2024

Modernisation plans for the RSA continue to cause deep divisions in the movement, with the national council descending into a ‘circus’ after a debate over the use of poppy fund money, writes Steve Kilgallon

An investigation has been launched into claims that annual Poppy Appeal donations ended up in the accounts of the RSA’s national office, instead of the National Poppy Fund.

Discussion of the claims at October’s national RSA council in Wellington descended into arguments, with one delegate shouting out during the meeting: “This is a circus”. It appears to have brought to a head simmering discontent in the grassroots RSA movement against the national leadership over a number of issues.

After attending the congress, one district president quit after just 10 days in the role saying he had no time for the organisation’s “dysfunction and toxicity” and he would rather spend his retirement cycling and helping children with dyslexia. Another attendee called the gathering a “total shambles”.

Another senior official is considering taking a judicial review after being ejected from the National Forum, the RSA’s decision-making body, after he was found to have breached the code of conduct by criticising the Royal New Zealand RSA’s chairman, retired Major-General Martyn Dunne.

But the RNZ RSA’s chief executive, Evan Williams, said the unrest came from a “small minority” and the national office was working with a “far more positive majority” on necessary reforms - part of Dunne’s ‘RSA2030’ modernisation programme.

Williams said any 108-year-old organisation would find a time of transition difficult but they had been as collaborative as possible with a thorough consultation process. “The bulk of the organisation understands the need for change and have been actively engaged”.

RSA president Sir Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford admitted there were “a lot of unhappy people out there”, but said a drive to modernise the RSA was a financial necessity.

Many of the 186 RSAs were battling financially, and it was simple reality that many needed to step away from physical clubrooms.

“A lot are struggling to pay the bills, don’t have a lot of people coming through the doors, and are held up by just a small group of people,” Shelford said. “We have to reinvent ourselves, and that’s what’s happening … some clubs are about ready to fold.”

He said some clubs needed to follow the example of East Coast Bays and Cambridge who had divested themselves of physical assets but remained active - and described the ‘RSA2030’ national modernisation programme as “knowing when to hold them, and when to fold them”.

Multiple clubs are openly discussing the prospect of breaking away from the national body before constitutional reforms are debated in February. The RSA also faces a declining membership - it’s understood to have dropped from 104,000 a decade ago to around 66,000 - and three successive negative balance sheets, including a loss this year of $176,000.

A hasty exit

Jon Bird lasted just ten days as Canterbury RSA district president, and says he intends to have nothing more to do with the national RSA movement.

Bird, 62, says he instead intends to spend his retirement cycling, coaching rugby and assisting a local child with his learning.

Bird was president of the Waimate RSA and elected in November as Canterbury district president, and said he’d made it clear he intended to preserve the independence of local clubs.

Waimate planned to oppose proposed constitutional reforms due to be voted on in February, claiming some breached the Incorporated Societies Act and threatened that independence.

Shelford said the reform was unpopular in parts, but had been forced by government reform and he warned clubs that broke away that the national body could claim their physical assets.

Williams said the RSA was “better together” but it had been explained to clubs that they couldn’t cherry-pick parts of the constitution. He said he knew of “at least one” association with strong opposition to the reforms but they were working hard to retain them and he said most clubs could see the benefits.

Bird said Waimate was exploring leaving the national body before that February meeting and would “not be at all surprised” if others did the same. One source suggested as many as 25 clubs were considering quitting.

Bird said the Waimate club was doing good work locally. “This is not a problem with the local clubs: they are doing what they do, they are looking after their money the best they can. The problem lies with the behaviour of the people controlling the RNZ RSA.”

He said the national body’s major problem was its finances and they should be focusing on making efficiencies but feared that instead there was a move to nationalise assets.

“They are going broke,” he said. “They know they are financially in trouble, they know the office and the whole system does not run well but there has been no attempt to come up with either a way of increasing their income or reducing their expenses.”

Command and control

RSA president Martyn Dunne ruffled feathers last year when he talked of RSAs needing to refocus on veterans, not “cheap booze and food”. In February, Stuff reported that Dunne’s ‘RSA2030’ programme was still causing an outcry, but Dunne said then he had been “misconstrued” and he wanted a “collegial and collective” approach. Dunne declined to comment for this story.

However, Dunne’s critics say he runs the RSA like a branch of the Army, with a “command-and-control” approach that brooks no dissent.

Former Wellington district president and Vietnam vet Chris Turver wrote to the board earlier this year asking for an independent review of the modernisation plan, saying the board “appears not to appreciate that the RNZRSA is not a government department or military unit but a democratically-elected voluntary organisation committed to service”.

One critic of Dunne has been expelled from the RSA’s President’s Forum, a decision-making body of delegates.

Retired sailor Keith Ingram, a JP, former publisher and boat skipper represents 33 affiliated clubs at the Forum but was removed from the forum, a decision he is contesting, for his comments about Dunne. Williams said Ingram had been voted out for a breach the code of conduct.

Ingram admits making representations to Auckland councillor Maurice Williamson when he heard suggestions Dunne was being considered for the board of the Auckland War Memorial Museum trust.

“Maurice said he’d known Martyn a long time, he’d worked with him, and I said ‘well, you should know bloody better then, because he’s a command-and-control freak and he’s causing a whole heap of shit in the RSA’,” Ingram said.

Ingram claims Williamson then breached his confidence by relaying his comments to the RSA (Williamson said he had no comment on the matter).

Ingram says Shelford then called him, saying he’d upset Dunne and should apologise. A letter followed, signed by Shelford, which said he had made “offensive and inflammatory’’ comments about Dunne’s military service and professional career, and declared they were “especially disappointing” coming from a JP.

Ingram claims Shelford told him he was not actually the author of that letter. Shelford said: “I can’t talk to you about that, it’s got nothing to do with you, it's just in-house.”

Ingram considered the judicial process was unfair because several members of the complaints committee also sat on the Forum panel which decided his fate. However, Williams said the three officials who sat on both had not voted.“They’d already had their kangaroo court,” Ingram said. “I suffered an hour and a half of humiliation as they went through the process”.

Jon Bird said the “unbelievable” treatment of Ingram, and moves to make him also ineligible to attend the Forum, prompted his exit. “I don’t need this,” he said. “Why am I bothering with these small-minded people? They are causing me sleepless nights, arguments and stress … so I walked away from it. I have plenty of other things to do.”

‘A circus’

Stuff has heard a recording of the official AGM on the final day of the council meeting, in which Auckland district president Graham Gibson attempted to have it officially noted on the Poppy Trust report that the claims of missing funds would be investigated.

Gibson was shouted down, leading to several angry exchanges and one attendee shouting: “This is turning into a circus”. There were further raised voices when one attendee described herself as a “dumb Māori”.

Williams hadn’t heard the tape, but said he didn’t want “strong debate” to spill into “unfair accusations” against individuals.

Interim RNZ RSA chief executive Andrew Brown - since replaced by Williams - told that meeting he would report back to senior officials later this month.

Several delegates told Stuff they believed about $137,000 was collected nationally for the Poppy Fund, but only $35,000 made it into its accounts.

But Shelford said the money was still used for veterans’ welfare, and funds would be returned to the Poppy Fund when they could. “Is it stealing? No it wasn’t.” He said rumours about the money had “spread like wildfire”.

Brown will report to the Presidents’ Forum by December 20 with options for changing how the poppy money was tracked and said he wanted to “provide assurance” to members. He described it as essentially an issue of “transparency and best practice” and he would be “providing some options on how we could potentially do it differently”.

He said the issue was some donations were received directly by the Poppy Trust, and others direct to head office, and there was a “process to move those donations from one to the other”. Williams said he could 'guarantee you if someone puts $2 into the poppy campaign it is not going to pay salaries and wages” and would benefit veterans but conceded the RSA could be more transparent with how the money was split and he would move to “clear up confusion”.

National Poppy Trust chair BJ Clark said he understood inquiries had been made about a “discrepancy” between the amount raised and the amount passed to the trust. He said some had gone into the RSA’s general account but that “doesn’t necessarily cause an issue because out of the general account comes expenses for support initiatives the national office does.”

Asked about the other issues, Clark, a former national president, said: “I certainly have a view but it is a personal view, but someone said to me when one leaves the stage, you should remember that you have left the stage.”

In a report to Auckland RSA clubs, seen by Stuff, Gibson noted the question of $108,000 of Poppy Fund money, and writes: “The mood of the majority of Auckland District RSAs is they have lost confidence in the RNZRSA, the Board Chair, certain members of the Board and certain members of the Forum. They feel they have failed their fiduciary duties and are producing poor outcomes for the stakeholders.” It’s understood Auckland was so dissatisfied it delayed paying its capitation fees. Gibson declined to comment to Stuff.

It is important to note the majority of poppy money is collected by local RSAs and banked into their own poppy fund accounts to care for the welfare of veterans locally.

Another former Canterbury district president, Stan Hansen, said local clubs handled their poppy money responsibly, and he would “hate for that to be put into jeopardy” but he said the funds going nationally “seem to be mis-managed … I personally wouldn’t promote donations to the national office. I’d rather you go to your local RSA and donate money there.”

Hansen, who attended the council representing four local clubs for the first two days, but spoke to Stuff in a personal capacity, described it as a “total shambles” and said financial losses were brushed over.

The dramas of the national council seem certain to be reignited at the next gathering in February.

One former local RSA president said: “It’s been a hostile takeover. Command-and-control, but a lot are now rebelling against Dunne. They don’t like him.”

Hansen said: “There’s massive unrest, with many associations now openly questioning why [they] stay and looking to break away”. He feared the movement was in mortal danger. “That may have to happen, and out of the ashes we create something that benefits veterans and their families. But no one wants the RNZ RSA to fold, that’s the last thing we want.”