27 March 2013

Chiefly fury directed at Actew Water

| johnboy
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The ABC has some strong language directed at Actew Water after they lost $235,000 in pay to Managing Director Mark Sullivan (a pretty hefty salary in its own right to most people).

Ms Gallagher learned early in March that the water provider understated Mr Sullivan’s salary by almost $235,000 in its 2010-11 annual report.

When the spreadsheet error was reported to the ACT Government, public servants did not pass it on to ministers.

Ms Gallagher says she has been misled and her confidence in ACTEW’s leadership has been shaken.

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Pork Hunt said :

chewy14 said :

Masquara,
I swear every time one of these threads comes up someone mistakes Actew and Actewagl. They aren’t the same thing and Sullivan is not the CEO of Actewagl.

Why doesn’t one or the other change their trading name then ffs ? (apologies for ffs to the grammar nazi, you know who you are)

I don’t know. At a guess, I’d say some PR genius have given them advice incorporating words like synergy, leverage and integration.

chewy14 said :

Masquara,
I swear every time one of these threads comes up someone mistakes Actew and Actewagl. They aren’t the same thing and Sullivan is not the CEO of Actewagl.

Why doesn’t one or the other change their trading name then ffs ? (apologies for ffs to the grammar nazi, you know who you are)

Why isn’t Michael Costello’s salary (CEO of ACTEW AGL) disclosed in the same manner as the salary of Mark Sullivan (CEO of ACTEW Water)?

What is being hidden there? This is public money we are dealing with.

In listed public companies the remuneration of all directors and key management personnel has to be disclosed and itemised in a set format. Typically the remuneration report has to be very comprehensive and covers some 30/40 pages of an annual report. – why doesn’t the same requirement exist for ACTEW AGL and other (publicly owned) quangos/business enterprises.

Have a read of the annual reports for both ACTEWs. The standard of disclosure is far less than that required of public companies. If anything, given that there is substantial public money in both organisations, the standard of disclosure in publicly owned organisation should be higher.

Masquara said :

So not only is this utility squandering money it hasn’t even bothered counting, on its CEO’s salary

This is news. Are you saying Michael Costello’s salary has also been under reported?

Masquara,
I swear every time one of these threads comes up someone mistakes Actew and Actewagl. They aren’t the same thing and Sullivan is not the CEO of Actewagl.

ActewAGL and $$$ – WTF? – went into my local IGA yesterday and there were massive hardcopy programs for the second tranche of the centenary celebrations – free to all comers and no expense spared – and no limit on distribution whatsoever (person in front of me in the queue took 3 copies). These books are 35cm square, and 125 pages thick. ActewAGL is the principal sponsor for the centenary – proudly declaimed just below the ACT Government crest. So not only is this utility squandering money it hasn’t even bothered counting, on its CEO’s salary, it is wasting our money on this huge glossy publication (matte cover, glossy internal pages throughout) – MUST have cost $10 at least a copy to print, let alone the design costs – and the ACT Labor Government is giving it away free when we could just as easily look up the centenary events online. Yet the centenary team were crying poor the other day!

Holden Caulfield3:34 pm 27 Mar 13

Grail said :

The board sets the salary. Apparently the board isn’t aware that the omitted part of Mr Sullivan’s salary is almost as big as the entire salary of other CEOs of similar utilities around Australia. Mr Sullivan is paid more than the CEO of Sydney Water or Adelaide Water. Why are we paying twice as much as any other city when the city is so small, and our water resources so easy to manage?

Maybe they thought it was fair that his salary was more than they pay for Lauren Jackson to recover from a hamstring injury?

someone else has their nose in the public trough and government don’t like it. Dribble goes both ways, I see you don’t like being bulls***ted to, neither do the public.

Funny how data doctoring wasn’t classed as misleading.

Grail said :

The board sets the salary. Apparently the board isn’t aware that the omitted part of Mr Sullivan’s salary is almost as big as the entire salary of other CEOs of similar utilities around Australia. Mr Sullivan is paid more than the CEO of Sydney Water or Adelaide Water. Why are we paying twice as much as any other city when the city is so small, and our water resources so easy to manage?

Well may you ask. That would be because the ACT Labor Government doesn’t bother to administer, but spends all its time on PR fluffing.

The board sets the salary. Apparently the board isn’t aware that the omitted part of Mr Sullivan’s salary is almost as big as the entire salary of other CEOs of similar utilities around Australia. Mr Sullivan is paid more than the CEO of Sydney Water or Adelaide Water. Why are we paying twice as much as any other city when the city is so small, and our water resources so easy to manage?

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