Whanganui Regional Museum has secured emergency funding of up to $250,000 from the Whanganui District Council to tackle financial issues after falling foul of Inland Revenue. It is conditional on the council completing a full review of the museum’s operations, with the museum bound to implement any decisions made. A report by council chief executive David Langford said general inflationary pressures had increased the museum’s costs.
Its budget included revenue of $150,000 from fundraising “but no fundraising activity has been achieved” and the museum had a debt to the IRD for failing to pay PAYE and underpaying GST. “This has accrued penalties and it is understood that a payment plan is now in place,” the report said. At a council meeting this week, museum director Bronwyn Labrum said there had now been changes to reporting through the Inland Revenue Department login portal and a new accountant was working with the IRD on the payment plan.
She said she sat before councillors “feeling quite a lot of embarrassment and uncomfortableness”. “The previous accountant thought the IRD had made errors and the IRD hadn’t,” Labrum said. “Then, there was the question of whether all communication between the accountant and the IRD was happening in a timely fashion.
“We were horrified when we learned the extent of it.” The council gives the museum $1.125 million annually and that is proposed to increase to $1.
3m for the 2024/25 financial year. However, that will .
