HiFlyer14
The accounts for any trade union are a matter of public interest, and can therefore be viewed on the Certification Office website. The most recent accounts for Unite, 2009, can be found Certification Officer - Existing Trade Unions
Your link is for the accounts of Unite. I think it is the (lack of?) accounts for BASSA that is raising questions.
The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992,
Section 30 (1), also makes reference to "records relating to a
branch or section of the union". Where are the BASSA accounts? For them to have been incorporated in to any Annual Return submitted by Unite, there should have been a complete set of audited accounts produced by BASSA ......shouldn't there? Therein lies the problem.
Money, serious money, has been spread about BASSA, and the law requires it to be properly accounted for. The sudden formation of BASSA Ltd, with a registered address at a small accounting firm in Eastleigh, Hampshire is likely an attempt for BASSA to get it's accounting on the correct side of the law. But that doesn't mean they can get away with several years of bypassing the law, does it?
So, once more, it is up to the current and former BASSA membership to be asking important questions of BASSA - where are the verified BASSA accounts for previous years? They have 28 days to allow access. Can BASSA produce such accounts? Go and find out, people, find out! It was your money, after all!
Noonday Gunn
I'm sure there is nothing fishy going on and that all of the money paid in good faith by past and present BASSA members is all accounted for. I'm sure that the BASSA executive will put all of these unsavoury questions to bed by publishing the accounts in accordance with the rules.
The point is, BASSA should have
already provided it's membership with access to it's accounts, each and every year. There should be no need for anyone to go searching 2 or 3 weeks for this info. The law requires that it should have already been collated, audited, and published. Ask the committee some hard questions!