The recent release of BCC’s 2019 financials to the ACNC Charity Register reveals financial viability concerns and alarming debt to student ratios. Read them here for yourself!
https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/charities/59ad763f-38af-e811-a961-000d3ad24182/documents/
With 2020 financial reports well overdue, current parents, employees and prospective staff and parents are being kept in the dark as to the school’s viability and stability.
According to Auditor Saward Dawson’s Report dated 22 October 2020, the 2019 financials "cast significant doubt on the company's [BCC] ability to continue as a going concern”. The BCC Board is responsible for BCC governance but has consistently not released financial reports that would give stakeholders any sense of the school’s actual financial position. With the release of the 2019 financials, and with the 2020 and 2021 reports yet to be released, many questions remain unanswered.
The Auditor attributes their concerns to significant liabilities and a lack of assurance of the College being able to meet their loan obligations which total a staggering $15.6 million. More specifically, and tellingly, BCC has a working capital deficiency of almost $14.8 million.
According to ACNC financials, the College had borrowings totalling just $200,000 in 2016 with student enrolments sitting at 791 students. Under Greg Zwajgenberg’s Chairmanship commencing in 2016 these loans have climbed dramatically to over $15 million. Nett student enrolments however, over the same period, have only increased by a mere 28 students to 819 students (according to February 2020 census data on https://www.myschool.edu.au/
These current loans represent an increase in debt to student ratio from a $252 to $19,067 per student at the beginning of 2020. With income (fees and funding) only being between $9-12,000 per student annually and no evidence of any significant increase in enrolments, how will the College service these debts? It’s no wonder the school spent over $330,000 of parent’s fees on advertising and marketing in 2019 and over $288,000 in 2018, with relatively little to show in any actual increases in enrolment.
With enrolment losses reported as 32% recently by the ACT Ombudsman, how will the College reassure parents that the school is financially viable and able to provide a stable platform for their children’s education? Releasing overdue financial reports would be one way to reassure stakeholders about the school’s actual financial position and its ability to function as a going concern.
Surely the College Board would be interested in reassuring its staff, parents, and other stakeholders by publicising the most recent financials to show its ongoing financial viability, unless of course the College is facing further financial risks?