By The Auditor Hunter
A satirical insight into an actual situation of a housing association executive’s gain from mischarged services.
It just sat there – and grew. The cash collected by the housing association for services which they did not provide to the tenants who had paid it. But how to extract that money from the coffers of the association to one’s benefit, without detection by the auditors?
Some of the money had been collected under the guise of payment for a communal telephone which did not exist in the scheme whose tenants had been charged. So why not use those funds to pay one’s own telephone bill? Merely amending the payee’s reference under which payment was made should guarantee credit to one’s account with the supplier. The auditors would see collections against a telephone charge, and a corresponding bill from a telecoms supplier. No alarm bells there then.
Then there was a similar charge – this time for a television licence, when there was no communal television on site. Even easier! Merely entering the reference of one’s own licence on the payment requisition was sufficient. Again the auditors would see a bill for a licence, and contributions by tenants to pay for it. No alarm bells there either.
Well – so far so good – but comparatively little money gained. Can the policy be adapted to generate greater funds?
If the tenants could be obliged to make contributions to a third party, the scheme auditors would be even less concerned. So why not form a dummy charity? Demand, on pain of eviction, that tenants make contributions to that so-called charity, but only for a small amount so that nobody’s interest would be roused too greatly.
Funds poured into the ‘charity’. The charitable aims of those funds was deliberately very vague. It was hard to imagine how any claim could materialise; so one had to be created. A victim could be tailor-made to tick all of the boxes, to justify a quite significant claim. Claims settlement would in any case be in the hands of the instigator of the dummy charity. It was just a case of waiting whilst the fund built up to merit a big claim.
Many tenants resented being ordered to make such a contribution to what was presented as a charity. Their complaints were quashed unmercifully. How many schemes are now pressed into contributions? Has that claim been raised yet? How much is the fund now worth? By wilfully failing to submit any annual breakdown of service charges, despite the legal requirement to do so, tenants and observers alike have no way to scrutinise.
22 March 2024
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The issue is that it’s all vagueries No actual details of which Housing Association is doing this . Give facts and details please
I’m nt sure if I am being conned, scammed r just led down a garden path. The accusations sound bad but there is no evidence given. No details of the Housing Association, the pseudo charity, how this came to light.
It sounds like a vague story set up to scare residents.