THE ongoing assistance of former mayor Paul Pisasale is likely to see two major charitable funds wound up and all funds distributed across the Ipswich community by mid-April.
The two funds, the Ipswich Community Charity Fund and the City of Ipswich Community Fund, were established to assist people in Ipswich going through hard times including floods and house fires.
Cr Tully is meeting with Bendigo Bank officials this week to update their records to enable the funds to commence one of the largest charitable fund disbursements ever seen in Ipswich.
He confirmed that no donations had been made to either fund or money paid out since 2018 except for the audit of both funds and ASIC registration costs.
Cr Tully does not personally control either fund and all decisions about disbursement of funds must be made by each of the operating boards.
Cr Tully said meetings of board members should be scheduled by the end of March to distribute all funds to nominated key charitable organisations in Ipswich.
Cr Tully said he was disappointed some Ipswich and Brisbane media and other individuals had wrongly suggested all fund money may not be accounted for.
“Last week, the Office of Fair Trading was forwarded copies of all bank statements during the relevant period proving there were no losses or irregular outgoings or payments.
“After the current audit process is finalised which will establish nothing improper has occurred, I will seek legal advice to consider defamation proceedings against at least one person who should have refrained from commenting on the matter without checking their facts first.
“The money should start to flow back to the Ipswich community within the next month thanks to Paul Pisasale’s efforts to enable these two funds created by him 20 years ago to be finally wound up.”
