With leaders like this...no wonder the Aboriginal population hasnt progressed very far....
I particularly like the fact there was a "non-repayable" grant (what the fukc is THAT about?????) and the last bit when he made the taxpayers pay for a locksmith (last para)
and people dare to whinge that they shut down this taxpayer's money black-hole
Sugar's shed loses $1.4m By Tony Koch and Scott Emerson August 6, 2004
A TIN shed on a vacant and dusty motor vehicle yard in Charleville in southern Queensland sold at auction yesterday for $82,500
The sales marks virtually the only return on $1.5 million of taxpayers' money given to a private company headed by ATSIC commissioner "Sugar" Ray Robinson.
"There were only two or three bids and the price includes goods and services tax," receiver-manager Ross Duus told The Australian last night. "It was auctioned to help repay the debt due to ATSIC."
The former Holden dealership, Alan Dobbin Motors, was bought by the Bidjara Motor Corporation in 2000 with funds supplied by ATSIC. Mr Robinson, who set up the company and was then ATSIC's deputy chairman, wrote to ATSIC in November 1999 asking for $3.9 million so Bidjara Motors could purchase and stock the existing Dobbin Motors dealership.
ATSIC agreed to a non-repayable grant of $730,000 to Bidjara and provided a further $834,150 to the company via a loan to the Bidjara Aboriginal Housing and Land Company, another Charleville-based Aboriginal organisation chaired by Mr Robinson.
The money was quickly swallowed up - $250,000 to buy the business, $534,150 for working capital, $300,000 for used vehicle stock and $480,000 to refit the shed.
But just two years later, Bidjara Motors was placed under administration with debts of more than $1.3 million.
According to a report to creditors by administrator John Feddema and lodged in the Supreme Court in Brisbane, "loans" to directors and related entities totalled $180,200.
The report said Bidjara Motors owed $576,000 to motor vehicle suppliers, with the explanation that Bidjara bought new vehicles on behalf of clients (essentially Aboriginal corporations) and the funds received were not passed on.
ATSIC and Mr Duus are now examining whether Bidjara Motors Corp traded while insolvent, and whether the directors including Mr Robinson, are liable for repayment of the $834,150 loan.
But the $730,000 grant - a gift of taxpayer dollars to the private company - cannot be recouped.
In his 1999 funding application, Mr Robinson said acquisition of the dealership would give Charleville Aborigines financial independence.
Mr Robinson wrote: "Within a relatively short time span, this will lead to the Charleville Aboriginal community being totally self-sufficient from government funding and taxpayer-generated funding.
"About 4000 local people will directly benefit, including 170 Aboriginal men and 180 women."
Mr Robinson, who this week failed to obtain a Supreme Court injunction to stop the sale, did not attend yesterday's auction.
When contacted by The Australian, he declined to comment.
Asked if other properties owned by Bidjara organisations would also be sold to satisfy the debts of Bidjara Motors, Mr Duus said: "We are valuing properties at the moment and expect to make an announcement soon."
When the administrators were appointed last year, Mr Robinson would not allow them access to the main Charleville premises - Bidjara Aboriginal Land and Housing Company.
They were forced to pay the costs of a locksmith flying the 500km from Brisbane to Charleville to open the door.
