Police have been asked to investigate after a probe by Fire and Emergency NZ into "financial" issues at the Titirangi Volunteer Fire Brigade. Photo / Supplied
Police have been called in to investigate a fund connected to a volunteer fire brigade after its own firefighters raised concerns with Fire and Emergency New Zealand.
The move to bring in police follows an investigation by Fire and Emergency NZ into "financial matters" at the Titirangi Volunteer Fire Brigade and comes three years after one of its members started asking questions about a pool of cash called "the wood fund".
The fund's origins lie in wood-chopping fundraising drives by the brigade, but it was kept off the books. Access and oversight was tightly restricted to its recently retired Chief Fire Officer Randolph Covich.
Covich has told the Herald there was a legal opinion which stated the "wood fund" was a "private account" so he was not obliged to provide accounts, which included rejecting Fire and Emergency NZ's demands for bank statements.
A document obtained by the Herald showed Covich maintained control over the "wood fund" after he left the brigade in July 2021 until June this year when $87,970 was transferred to the Titirangi brigade as a donation. It was said to be the closing balance of the account.
By then, Fire and Emergency NZ had threatened to cut the brigade's funding if control of it wasn't passed back to current members of the brigade.
The "wood fund" was first raised with Fire and Emergency NZ by the Titirangi brigade's Station Officer Sean Smith in 2019, according to documents that were part of the Fenz investigation.
"I decided to make a stand," Smith told the Herald. "[Covich] was f***ing me around. He wouldn't give us the balance of the account and the statements. I was really starting to get in his ear."
In October 2020 - against a backdrop of other issues at Titirangi brigade - Smith took his complaint outside the brigade by making a complaint to Fire and Emergency NZ.
Smith told the investigators from accounting firm Deloitte he had asked for statements and transaction listings at brigade management meetings. His statement said Covich told him "he will provide these documents to me the following week or in the next management meeting".
"The next week would then come and Mr Covich would say he forgot or he has been busy and that he will have the documents again for me during the next week or meeting. This process continued for a year since I have asked."
Smith told the Herald his frustration increased because of a perceived lack of action by Fire and Emergency NZ after his complaint. It was a frustration well embedded as Smith - and other firefighters at the brigade - had raised other claims they believed Fire and Emergency NZ had not properly addressed.
Among those was Smith's claim someone had put a broken beer bottle and nails in his firefighter's boots. It was an allegation that led to an expletive-ridden argument with Covich in February 2021.
Smith was stood down for insubordination over the argument and then sacked as a volunteer for using his Fire and Emergency NZ email account while suspended to question the behaviour of another senior officer about whom he had previously complained.
It was among a string of issues raised by Smith and others at the brigade which led to factions forming and ill-feeling between some members. In Herald interviews, former brigade members estimate recent years of frustration and tension have led to about 15 experienced volunteers leaving the brigade.
One of those firefighters said frustration over the "wood fund" was one of the consistent themes and a number of firefighters believed Smith was right to ask questions about it.
The firefighter, who the Herald agreed not to name, said volunteers were frustrated Fire and Emergency NZ didn't appear to be intervening as complaints mounted.
"With the 'wood fund', we were giving up our family time to do fundraisers to get equipment." He said he believed the money fundraised belonged to the brigade and should have been regularly reported on at meetings.
Minutes of the brigade's June meeting included the statements: "There are two viewpoints on the 'wood fund' money. Brigade management believes the money is not brigade money and is not subject to reporting. FENZ's view is that it is brigade money and is subject to reporting."
The minutes showed Covich and the former chief fire officer Trevor Morley were still signatories to the account even though neither were active brigade members.
According to the minutes, Fire and Emergency NZ's Auckland regional manager Ron Devlin had told the brigade it had to make current members signatories or its funding would be stopped. The minutes said the current chief fire officer Philip Taylor had asked the ANZ to change signatories "but they did not allow it".
Covich was recorded as telling the meeting the "balance of the 'wood fund' accounts have been donated to the brigade" with $87,970 transferred.
Taylor told the Herald in a statement the brigade was "aware of an allegation around the management of a previous privately owned financial account". He said the brigade would not comment while it was complying with an investigation into the allegation.
Taylor said the brigade was a registered charity and "complied with all reporting obligations" under charity law.
A survey of the brigade's financial statements up to 2021 - held on the Charities Register - showed no sign of the "wood fund".
Covich said the decision was made not to provide bank statements to those wanting access because "it's gone so messy now that we're advised not to release anything".
He said he would provide information to police. "If they ask for it, I'm sure we would cooperate with whatever is necessary."
Covich said the "wood fund" was a legacy account passed "from chief to chief" that had never been audited and existed because "back in the day there was never enough money to present people with medals or awards".
He said the account was kept away from Fire and Emergency NZ because "we were really scared that the organisation would come and take that money".
"In our minds we were protecting it for the brigade's use in the future."
When he retired, Covich said he decided to not transfer signatories to Taylor as the new chief fire officer.
"We could have done that but it's private and because the whole thing had got so messy we didn't want him to handle that."
Covich said other brigades - including some that were "seriously wealthy" - held similar accounts.
"They're privately held accounts, generally looked after by long-serving members of the brigade."
Morely said: "It was a private account which has been donated to the brigade."
Fire and Emergency NZ's Auckland regional manager Ron Devlin would not directly answer questions about the "wood fund". In September, he said: "The brigade is subject to an active investigation on a number of financial matters."
When approached again this month, he said: "We have now referred the matter of the Titirangi Volunteer Fire Brigade 'wood fund' to police."
Herald inquiries into concerns around the Titirangi brigade's "wood fund" revealed deeper issues stemming from the 2017 law change that attempted to integrate New Zealand's volunteer brigades and paid firefighters under the single Fenz structure.
The voluntary firefighters' advocacy and support body, the United Fire Brigades Association, rejected claims made by Fire and Emergency NZ to the Herald about its influence over voluntary brigades and their members.
The UFBA, which was involved in supporting members at the Titirangi brigade, was provided a copy of Fire and Emergency NZ's statement to the Herald as part of a "no surprises" agreement with the national body.
In it, Fire and Emergency NZ claimed "all brigades are effectively part of Fire and Emergency NZ". The UFBA spokeswoman said each brigade was its own entity with contractual legal agreements with Fire and Emergency NZ that had yet to be renegotiated.
She also said an assertion by Fire and Emergency NZ it could "take disciplinary action against individual volunteers" was wrong. The UFBA said Fire and Emergency NZ could not sack volunteers because they belonged to individual brigades. She said it could only withdraw the legal authority empowering volunteers during emergencies.
Volunteer firefighters make up 85 per cent of the frontline force. About 680 brigades cover 95 per cent of New Zealand's landmass.
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