In a story in The Age today, ANF acting CEO Don MacAskill is quoted as saying
“People have criticised our organisation for the due diligence that was conducted on Bill Express, but at the end of the day, to put this in perspective, Telstra did due diligence on Bill Express, Optus did due diligence … Vodafone did due diligence,” he said.
“Now if they all thought that they were a worthy credit risk, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the ANF wouldn’t have been too off the mark in thinking it was a worthwhile risk. They definitely had the resources to do a hell of a lot better due diligence.”
MacAskill, in a communication to ANF members, said the ANF had not seen the agreements newsagents signed with Bill Express and that there were various forms of these.
In other communication he has claimed that the ANF did conduct due diligence and that this was undertaken by ANF lawyers Fisher Jeffries.
I joined the ANF Board in December 2003 and resigned in December 2004. The Bill Express decision was made by the ANF Board at its February 26/27 2003 meeting. When I joined the Board, I was provided Board papers for the year prior. I cannot see any evidence of due diligence being conducted by the ANF on the commercial relationship proposed between newsagents and Bill Express and associated businesses. The only due diligence I can see relates to the heads of agreement between the ANF and Bill Express.
On May 30 this year I wrote to the Acting CEO of the ANF expressing concern at public statements made by the ANF about Bill Express and how they conflict with what I knew about ANF decisions and actions in relation to Bill Express. As I noted in that correspondence, newsagents need to know the truth no matter how unpleasant.
Associations, their Directors and employees ought to be prepared to throw themselves in front of a bus for their members. Members must come first. I hope that one day, in an appropriate forum, newsagents will be able to access sufficient facts to determine if their national association put the needs of newsagents first.
The ANF had a responsibility to scrutinise the fairness of the contract before recommending it to their members. They therefore should have warned their members of the different cancellation clauses that existed between the BE and the rental contract and its potential implications. That had nothing to do with the financial side of due diligence.
that’s exactly what I think as well.
we are not thinking of credit risk ie being a supplier to Bill Express.
It is the fairness test for the contract that we are concerned about.
Statements about never being out of pocket, guaranteed advertising rebate- these should have been tested and commented upon.
Understand also that earlier batches of contract did not have the equip rental amount ($495 exGST) specified in the contract.
However later contract batches had the amount inserted.
To me this is clear by then they knew about the impending failure of their business model and thus sought to have the rental inserted to gain financially.
ANF should have questioned about this new clause as part of their due diligence and putting their members first as they were also actively promoting billexp to the
newsagents then.
This is what I find appalling about ANF, putting commercial concerns before its members’ interests.
Goodness knows, what else they have sold out on.
I think you are both Correct. The Telco’s due diligence would of been in the area of a guarrentee of getting paid, not how they were paid and what contracts were in place to assure there payment. Any member of a board, CEO or mananger worthy of the position should have known.
Folks do what I did if you are an ANF member and cancel your membership. Aside from the poor representation we have received in the two years I was a member this BE episode i.e. how it was hawked to new newsagents and their soft c…k reaction to it’s obviouls collapse is the wake up call is what made my mind up to cancel membership.
If this is an example of what my industry association can do for me when an integral part of it implodes then I can only guess how more seriuos issues are/will be handled.
I would urge other newsagents to seriously rethink what membership really means to them. I have and I have cancelled.
I HOPE THEY ARE NOT DEBITING OUR ACCOUNTS
It is such a shame that our industry doesn’t have a strong body protecting our interests and furthering the “newsagent” brand.
We left the ANF and VANA a few years ago because we felt neither understood the real issues facing our industry, and questioned their close alliances with commercial companies. We got the feeling the organisations were “stuck in a different era”. I had great pleasure pointing this out to The Age yesterday.
Perhaps it’s time to start a completely new, forward looking, industry body?
I have felt since I joined this game that we need a leader. The ANF I did not like their resume and so did not join. The QNF have been great recently but still are not doing what we all need. The future I think lies in the marketing groups, they are the ones finding new markets – good ones – and helping us all acheive our best. I think the federations could learn from the groups but I also think that it may be too late for them after this.
I am a newsXpress member.
I am with you there Brett!
once again i call on the guru to make one last stand to establish a new newsagency body.you have the support now, guru-hundreds phoned you yesterday,your on your way to getting optus,vodaphone and a new bill payment system.its 40 years since we had a bobby kennedy-dont let us down,guru