Deducted and Paid

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Breaching the Rules

Deducted and Paid

All Matters Submitted

Written Permission

Direction of Board

Kypros Kotzikas

Appeal Rights

Natural Justice

Edmund Burke

Rule 405(3) is the Rule which started the trouble. It says, “The prescribed fee [the fee for registering a horse with NZTR] may …. include a special levy of $10 …. If such a fee is so included it shall be deducted by such Chief Executive and paid to the New Zealand Racehorse Owners Federation .... ”

Because the $10 levy was being collected and not being paid, I contacted a former JCA Chairman to ask the meaning of this Rule. He said, “Rule 405 does not give the Chief Executive any option but to pay the levy to the New Zealand Racehorse Owners Federation (Inc). The rule is mandatory and not permissive.”

Shortly afterwards the NZTR CEO wrote to the NZROF President, “You are well aware of the background to the payment being withheld.” He then indicated he required: “all Associations being able to play a full and active part in the Federation’s affairs.”

This was his way of saying that he was not making payments until certain resigned Associations rejoined NZROF.

These associations resigned voluntarily, saying they wouldn’t return while the existing leadership was in office and  then arranged for NZTR to stop paying the levy proceeds.

This was nothing less than a form of blackmail.

In the Federation they had been a disgruntled minority with no support for their ideas. They couldn’t win either by votes at the Federation table or through the ballot box at the AGM.

Their situation changed completely when the NZTR CEO instructed his accountant to stop the payment of the monthly cheques.

NZTR then used its clout to get the resigned associations back into the Federation when it organised a meeting at  Taupo that all owners associations were inivited to attend .

Payments made in accordance with Rule 405  were resumed after the Federation's 2003 AGM; that’s when other associations voted into office those who had organised the stopping of the money from NZTR.

If such a fee is so included it shall be deducted by such Chief Executive and paid to the New Zealand Racehorse Federation