Fed: Ettridge says missing funds simply accounting mix up

AAP General News (Australia)
12-29-1999
Fed: Ettridge says missing funds simply accounting mix up

CANBERRA, Dec 29 AAP - More than $2 million that former One Nation members claim is
missing from party coffers never existed, party director David Ettridge said today.

It was a simple case of the money being counted twice in accounting procedures after
it was deposited in one account and then transferred to another, Mr Ettridge said.

"We received a cheque from the electoral funding and we banked it into the party's
account, so that we could clear the money before it was then banked into the trust account
because the trust account hadn't been created at that stage. It was in the process of
being created," he told AAP.

"When our accountant had to prepare the return for the electoral commission in a manner
in which they asked for it to be returned that money was shown to have been banked twice.

"But it was still the same amount of money."

Mr Ettridge said One Nation's return to the electoral commission said the party's total
banking equalled $5.72 million but that was actually just twice the $2.86 million originally
received from the electoral commission.

"In fact there was only ever one lot of $2.86 million," he said.

"What they haven't understood and will never understand because they don't want to
understand is that that was the way that we banked our money.

"There isn't any missing money."

A report in the Daily Telegraph said today former members of One Nation believed over
$2 million of party funds could not be accounted for.

AAP eg/mo/nm

KEYWORD: NATION LEAD

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