The flow of money from Shellharbour clubs to the region’s aerial patrol will dry up this year, after the troubled shark-spotting service missed a grants application cut-off.
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The mis-step severs a funding source that has been worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Albion Park not-for-profit and - with numerous authorities and the taxman now taking an interest in the service’s financials - comes when it can least afford it.
The deadline for Shellharbour’s ClubGrant’s scheme fell on April 27, just as news was breaking that a series of investigations were underway into the patrol’s finances.
Patrol chairman Harry Mitchell told the Mercury the cut-off passed unnoticed.
“We missed it by two days and that was only because our attention had been diverted by all the adverse media attention,” he said.
“The ClubGrants people at Shellharbour quite rightly said it ended on Wednesday.”
Illawarra clubs gave more than $63,000 to the aerial patrol in 2014.
More recent financial statements have not been made public, however last year Wests Illawarra gave the patrol $100,000 to fit out its plane with live streaming video technology.
Asked if the club would attempt to recoup the money in light of the patrol’s financial woes, Wests CEO Daniel Munk said he was awaiting the outcome of official inquiries.
“Until the investigations are complete it’s pretty hard for us to highlight what our focus is,” he said.
Mr Mitchell said the patrol remained eligible for ClubGrants funding from Wollongong clubs, having met the city’s April 22 cut-off.
ClubGrants is a community funding scheme introduced by the NSW Government in 1998. It sees larger registered clubs contribute 2.25 per cent of their profits to front-line services and groups in their communities.
Mr Mitchell is the sole director of the patrol’s commercial arm, NSW Air, which is being pursued in the Federal Court over a $115,678 tax debt.
The matter returns to court next month.