MEDIA RELEASE
8 January 2016
Taste stallholders now paid unallocated funds
The City of Hobart has released the last of the unallocated monies due to Taste of
Tasmania stallholders.
The Acting Lord Mayor, Alderman Ron Christie said stallholders have now received
a reconciled report of all their transactions and the daily payments made throughout
the seven days of the event.
“Of the $5.15 m (incl GST) gross turnover from the event, for some 330,000
transactions, the total of the unallocated funds sitting in the bank was $139,000, or
about 2.7 per cent of turnover. This money has now been allocated to the rightful
stallholders with funds owing being paid to stallholders.
“During the event and immediately after the majority of funds were paid directly to
stallholders.
“A rigorous reconciliation process has been undertaken this week by Black Label
Solutions, the software provider for the Albert device and provider of the prepaid
Taste Cards. They used the logs from individual Albert terminals assigned to
stallholders and transactional data supplied by the Commonwealth Bank.
“We, and our stallholders have been assured that every transaction recorded via the
Albert EFTPOS tablets has been accounted for, reconciled to individual stallholders
and every cent owing to stallholders is being processed for payment today.
“In addition, and as supported by the stallholders, a secondary audit of the
processes, reconciliations and final payments made to the stallholders will be
undertaken by Wise Lord and Ferguson, and overseen by the Council’s independent
Audit Panel.
“While it is regrettable that the trial of the Albert system resulted in some operational
issues that affected stallholders, we are grateful that they have indicated a
willingness to continue to work with us in resolving these issues moving forward.
“The stallholder have been very supportive and patient while our team worked with
the bank and software provider to resolve the most immediate and urgent issue for
them, which was ensuring accurate reporting and payment of any unallocated funds.
“The Council, the Commonwealth Bank and Black Label will continue to work with
stallholders should there be any concerns with the transaction reporting delivered
today. We have been focussed on resolving all transactional issues before moving
on to talking with our stallholders about other concerns expressed in their recent
open letter.
“We will be undertaking a detailed evaluation of the Albert trial in consultation with
Albert providers, the Commonwealth Bank and Black Label Solutions.
“Stallholders will have ample opportunity to have input into the evaluation of the trial,
as well as a review of the other aspects of the 2015/2016 Taste, prior to a report
going to the Council.
“We are absolutely committed to engaging with all stakeholders during the review of
the 2015/2016 Taste of Tasmania to ensure the 2016/2017 Taste best reflects our
stallholder’s and community’s expectations,” said the Acting Lord Mayor.
The new financial model for the Taste, which saw the stallholder paying 10 per cent
of their turnover from the event, raised an estimated $440,000 in gross income.
The Acting Lord Mayor said: “This money will help off-set the cost to Hobart
ratepayers of staging the event.”
“The Taste is funded by ratepayers together with revenue from stallholder fees, New
Year’s Eve ticket sales, bar and merchandise sales and savings achieved with our
event sponsors. The event does not return a profit nor was the trial of the Albert
system ever intended to achieve this. What it was intended to help with was to offset some of the cost of the event and ease the burden on our ratepayers,” said the
Acting Lord Mayor.
ENDS
For further information:
The Acting Lord Mayor, Alderman Ron Christie: 0414 444 414
Media enquiries:
Principal Advisor Media and Community Relations Kerry Baker: 0437 775 484
Attached:
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Taste of Tasmania – Fact Sheet
Scope of Wise Lord and Ferguson independent audit
Letter to stallholders from the Acting Lord Mayor and General Manager dated
8 January 2016
Taste of Tasmania 2015/2016 Facts - 8 January 2015
The Taste of Tasmania 2015/2016
Facts

The Council’s team of dedicated event and marketing professionals, all with
significant local or national experience, delivered the most transformational
change any event has been subject to in Tasmania.

There were:
o Estimated visitation of almost 240,000 over seven days
o 330,461 individual transactions via the Albert system
o $5.15M (inc GST) in stall turnover

The majority of money was paid directly to stallholders during or almost
immediately after the event.

Of the $5.15M turned over by stallholders, $139,000 or 2.7 per cent of the
total turnover was sitting in the bank to be allocated.

Following a rigorous reconciliation process, stallholders have now received a
reconciled report of their transactions and any previously unallocated funds
have been processed for payment.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the developers and providers of the
Albert EFPTOS tablet and Black Label Solutions Pty Ltd, the software
provider for the device and provider of the prepaid Taste cards have assured
us and our stallholders that every transaction recorded via the Albert EFTPOS
tablets has been accounted for, reconciled to individual stallholders and every
cent owing to stallholders paid.

An independent audit opinion on the processes, reconciliations and final
payments made to the stallholders has been sought by Council’s external
auditors Wise Lord and Ferguson, and will be overseen by the Council’s
independent Audit Panel. This is a move supported by stallholders.

The new financial model for the Taste, which saw the stallholder paying 10
per cent of their turnover from the event, raised an estimated $440,000 in
gross income.
1
Taste of Tasmania 2015/2016 Facts - 8 January 2015

This money will help off-set the cost to Hobart ratepayers of staging the event.

The Taste is funded by ratepayers together with revenue from stallholder
fees, New Year’s Eve ticket sales, bar and merchandise sales and savings
achieved with our event sponsors. The event does not return a profit nor was
the trial of the Albert system ever intended to achieve this. What it was
intended to help with was to off-set some of the cost of the event and ease the
burden on our ratepayers.

The cashless payment system was almost universally supported by patrons of
the Taste.

68 per cent of stalls at the Taste of Tasmania sold food, which is similar to
other years. There were more collaborative stalls this year which may have
contributed to a perception that there were more stalls selling alcohol than
food.

It was the best layout and event design ever seen by stallholders and patrons.

A detailed evaluation of the cashless trial will be undertaken in the coming
months, along with a review of other aspects of the 2015/2016 Taste. This
review will involve us engaging with stallholders and other stakeholders
before a report is presented to the Council.
Ends
2
Hobart City Council
Project 11 – Audit of the
Taste of Tasmania Sales
System 2015/16
Scoping Document
Aim
To perform an audit of the processes and reconciliations relating to the
sales system at the Taste of Tasmania (the Taste) for the period 28
December 2015 to 3 January 2016.
Background
The Taste of Tasmania is operated by the Hobart City Council and is one of
Tasmania’s most popular and enduring summer events. The annual event
is held from the 28 December – 3 January at Hobart’s waterfront.
For the 2015/16 a new cashless sales system (the sales system) was
introduced at the Taste. The Council was the merchant for all sales onsite
and hired the new EFTPOS/POS terminal from the CBA called ‘Albert’. Black
Label Solutions (BLS) provided the point of sale (POS) application that was
loaded onto Albert; this application was approved by the CBA during the
contracting phase. BLS also provided the reporting (microstrategy) to allow
for calculation of Council’s 10% levy on sales.
On 4 January 2016, a number of stallholders wrote to Council outlining
issues experienced with the sales system during and after the event.
Council are aware of the issues experienced, including significant issues
relating to the reporting from the POS application provided by BLS.
Council have provided assertions to stall holders that all monies due and
payable to stall holders will be made.
To support this process, this project has been scoped to perform an
independent audit of the processes and reconciliations used to pay all
monies to stallholders and Council from the event.
Scope
The scope of this project is to provide an independent audit opinion on the
processes, reconciliations and final payments made to the stallholders and
Council from the 2015/16 Taste of Tasmania event.
Specifically the scope of this project will include:
•
Reviewing the processes and records of allocating Albert terminals to
stallholders, including any changes made during the event.
•
A review of the sales process for credit and debit cards, and the ‘gift
card’ (top up cards) at the stalls and the HCC desk, including cancelled
transactions, refunds, and cash top ups.
•
A review of all data available from both the CBA settlements data, the
Albert terminals, and the POS application provided by BLS.
•
A review of the processes employed by HCC and their agents (BLS and
CBA) to reconcile settlement and sales data (note: this is subject to the
participation and assistance provided by CBA and BLS in this audit
process). This will include discussions with HCC’s agents as deemed
necessary.
•
Audit of the reconciliations of transactions for each day for each
stallholder to the final payments made and any other transactions
and/or processes deemed necessary.
Hobart City Council
Page | 2
Project 11 – Taste of Tasmania Sales System 2015/16
January 2016
•
Review of the treatment of GST on the transactions, including the HCC
levy.
This scope will include all transactions processed through the cashless
sales system for the period, including credit card, EFTPOS and ‘gift card’ (top
up cards) transactions.
Approach
Key Contacts
To complete the high level review, the following audit approach will be
undertaken:
•
Document and understand the sales processes utilising the system;
•
Obtain the data sets available and assess the reliability of the source;
•
Document and understand the reconciliation process undertaken by
HCC and its agents, and assess the reasonableness of the process;
•
Undertake audit testing of the reconciliations performed and any other
transactions and/or processes as deemed necessary;
•
Identify any irregularities and report for resolution;
•
Document and report findings and provide an independent audit
opinion in line with the scope.
Philip Holliday, Director Community Development
Michael Daly, Manager Events & Salamanca Market
Taryn Townsend, Senior Advisor Events & Salamanca Market
Deliverables
The key deliverables for this project will include the following:
•
Our Team
A report detailing the findings of our review. The report will include:
-
An independent audit opinion on the audit scope.
-
Discussion of any findings from the audit and recommendations
in response to the scope of the audit.
Danny McCarthy FCA
Partner
Alicia Leis FCA
Partner
Maryellen Salter CA
Director
Fee
The fee for this project will be charged at an hourly rate in accordance with
the contracted rates.
Timing
We will commence the audit process in January and complete the work in
line with Council timeframes agreed with stallholders.
Hobart City Council
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Project 11 – Taste of Tasmania Sales System 2015/16
January 2016