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The State Government-backed Perth group Stop The Toad Foundation (STTF) has been exposed as what the Kimberley Echo has been saying for some time - an expensive and inefficient bureaucracy.
Almost 40 percent of State Government money given to a group has been spent on salaries, mainly for Perth-based staff.
STTF has revealed that of the $500,000 it received from the Government and $46,000 in public donations, $208,600 has been spent on wages.
Its staff includes four full-time workers.
Saturday's West Australian said the breakdown of staff was one based in the Kimberley, one part-time officer based in Perth and two casuals, one who lives in the Kimberley and the other is a part-time consultant based in Darwin.
What hasn't been paid in wages has been spent on administration, promotion, airfares ($5500) and fencing materials, vehicles, supplies and other costs associated with a recent six-week on-the-ground exercise known as the 'Great Toad Muster'.
The local volunteer group Kimberley Toad Busters (KTB) distanced itself from the event as, from past experience, STTF had attempted to gain funding, pretending that the volunteers and their work came under its umbrella.
The West Australian article said the foundation had received another $70,000 in donations but could not access it until it was granted tax-deductible status.
STTF said the recent muster, which killed 42,000 toads, was its main effort for this year.
Its efforts compared with 67,000 toads killed by KTB, operating mainly at weekends for the past 14 months.
Kimberley Toad Busters have no salaried staff.
Their funding consists of $15,000 from the State Government, $304,000 from the Federal Government and $135,000 in donations.
Co-ordinator Lee Scott-Virtue estimated her company had donated a further $105,000 plus $70,000 'in kind' on toad-catching exercises during the group's first nine months.
STTF foundation patron Tim Winton last year talked the State Government into giving $500,000 to the foundation in December.
Apart from reconnaissance, the foundation did not hold a major toad-catching exercise until June.
Without taking into consideration the incredible number of eggs, tadpoles and metamorphs destroyed by KTB during wet season busts, the mathematics on cost per toad killed show STTF costs nearly twice the amount per toad killed - too many chiefs and not enough indians. |
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