Ingkerreke Commercial in liquidation

By ERWIN CHLANDA

Aboriginal controlled Ingerreke Commercial is in liquidation and is claimed to be owing Ingkerreke Services Aboriginal (ISA) – by far its major debtor – just under $2m.

Questions have been raised about the respective ownership of companies involved and any sources of government money.

The Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Companies (ORIC) gave ISA an extension to January 31, 2022 for holding its AGM that was due on November 30, 2021.

Major claimed creditors are: ATO $326,823; Centrepoint Cars $56,780; GGS Alice Glass $66,653; Hardy Fencing $89,669; Ingkerreke Services Aboriginal (ISA) $1,966,929; Tjawanpa Outstation Resource $193,200.

The claimed $3.24m creditors include $3.19m unsecured.

Reece Australia is a secured creditor to the amount to $52,834.

Creditors have been told by Liquidator J S McPherson that he will take action including selling the assets of the company; continue to liaise with key stakeholders regarding two licensed contracts; continue to liaise with employees and creditors alike; and proceed to de-register the company.

Directors are: Matthew James Palmer; Skye Lee Thompson; Peter Chamel Palmer; Maria Thompson; Jonathon Conway and Evert Tomlins.

Liquidators say in the executive summary they secured the company’s premises, including all motor vehicles, and arranged for offsite assets to be returned to the company premises.

They conducted an analysis of the company’s financial performance and conducted preliminary investigations into the company.

Said the Liquidator in October: “There is the possibility that a dividend may be paid to unsecured creditors on admitted claims in the range from a low-end range estimate of nil cents in the dollar to a high-end range of 24.89 cents in the dollar.”

Interim-CEO Skye Thompson is quoted in a report “about an overview of the Company’s circumstances”:-

Incorrect costing of contracts led to a decrease in contract-profitability compared to the size of the workforce.

Incorrect costing of contracts led to an inability to produce profit from the materials sourced for contracts; in some instances a loss was made on the purchase of materials.

Poorly performed work on contracts resulted in defects.

Contract completion-delays due to the rectification of defects resulted in cost overruns and consequent financial loss to the company.

Loss of key management personnel resulted in the inefficient administration of the company.

“Our investigations indicated that the company grew too quickly during a period of time and that it had insufficient funds to sustain the growth of the resulting creditor base,” says a director.

“As a result of the expansion of the company it employed a larger workforce which in turn resulted an increasing liability for employee entitlements.

“Due to consecutive operating losses, the company was unable to reduce its headcount due to its inability to pay out redundancy costs and accrued employee entitlements. This resulted in the company abiding an under-utilised workforce.”

Voidable transactions include, but are not limited to:–

Unfair preferences – payments made to one or more creditors in preference to the wider body of creditors at a time when the company is determined to be insolvent; and uncommercial transactions – transactions that a reasonable person would not have entered into having regard to the benefit (if any) and detriment to the company of entering in the transaction and the benefit to other parties of entering into the transaction.

The Act provides that a liquidator may recover from the directors of an insolvent company damages in respect of losses suffered by creditors from transactions entered at a time when a company is insolvent.

In assessing the merits of commencing an insolvent trading claim against a company director, a liquidator needs to consider the cost of commencing legal proceedings, the likelihood of succeeding as well as the financial capacity of the director to meet an order for damages, if made by a court.

UPDATE Dec 18, 2021, 2pm

The report above replaces in its entirety the report appearing in this space previously, as  well as two photographs.

The original report asserted in error that this was the second time Ingerreke Commercial was placed in liquidation.