NT Police to investigate missing money from the Darwin Basketball Association

NT POLICE are investigating allegations of the misappropriation of more than $300,000 of Darwin Basketball Association funds, dating back four years.

Doherty

EXCLUSIVE: NT POLICE are investigating allegations of the misappropriation of more than $300,000 of Darwin Basketball Association funds, dating back four years.

NT POLICE are investigating allegations of the misappropriation of more than $300,000 of Darwin Basketball Association funds, dating back four years.

The investigation, along with other operational issues, has forced basketball to shut down at the Marrara Sports complex for the foreseeable future.

Doherty

Steven Doherty, the new president of the Darwin Basketball Association, has the job of sorting out the mess. In an exclusive interview with the NT News yesterday, Mr Doherty revealed the extent of the issues that basketball was facing.

"It is a definite police matter," he said.

 "We want to send a strong message to the basketball fraternity and the community more generally that we can't turn a blind eye but we will take advice from the taskforce," Mr Doherty said.

He said the financial problems had come to light after the accountant group BDO was called in to look into the association's plight.

"There has been a general unaccounted amount of money every year. About four years ago, there was a cash position of $280,000," Mr Doherty said.

"That has been dwindling by $70,000 a year. That money is unaccounted for.

"We got down to having more liabilities than we had money coming in. We are solvent now but we were one step away from going into receivership."

Police told the NT News they were investigating a theft from an association safe, which happened sometime after Saturday. It did not elaborate on its misappropriation investigation.

Doherty

Mr Doherty said the association's dire straits came to light a couple of months ago when sums of $3000 and then $6500 were found to have gone missing.

"I don't want to make any unsubstantiated allegations but there are now anomalies around cashing handling in the canteen area and in our ATM, stock control and through our gate," Mr Doherty said.

"We did not have the staff to let the board know how much money we had in the bank. For the past two months, BDO have been finalising our accounts to get ready for auditors.

"As soon as we remove the risk of failing in our duty of care, we will be back running basketball games."

But netting the missing money could be just the tip of the iceberg, with Mr Doherty identifying a string of other problems that have floored all basketball competitions at the Marrara complex.

"Games have been cancelled until further notice," he said.

"We feel that our members are at great risk if they come here and play.

"For the nine months that I have been on the board, we have been plagued with having no staff, with not having proper processes in place.

"This is where the risk comes in, because, for example, if we don't have qualified first-aid people as court supervisors ... that leaves us open to risk, if we have damaged facilities, such as the air conditioners not running."

Mr Doherty said operations had deteriorated over a period of time and this had come about because of a lack of qualified staff.

"Day-to-day operations have been left to the board, so it has been very difficult for everybody," he said.

Mr Doherty only took over from outgoing president Jason Ivinson at a specially convened meeting on Wednesday night.

He paid tribute to previous president Ivinson, who he described as a stalwart of basketball. There is no suggestion Mr Ivinson has done anything wrong.