What a Fine Mess

I have been acting as the elected Chairman of a Body Corporate since 2018 and will completely be open here and as direct as I feel a Trustee and an owner should be sharing my experiences with all other flat owners and trustees. You can then make your own decision on the information provided. I do have all the documentation, emails, correspondence and lawyers’ letters as proof of my complaint that I am sharing here.

We joined Compeg during 2014 and have had some major and unnecessary problems with COMPEG with the financial statements that are not up to date. For instance, we missed the AGM two years in a row! Since 2018 after I took over as the Chairman, we had the AGM in 2018 and 2019. No problem at that time as our acting Portfolio Manager was the absolute BEST.

In early 2020 our Portfolio Manager left Compeg and since then we have had 3 three different portfolio managers and the problems have been escalating rapidly. I am not receiving the correct figures for the Year 2020 Financial Statements. The problem I feel is in the accounting department of Compeg. Surely, they cannot be using real qualified bookkeepers as the bookkeeping work is a mess.

These are some of the discrepancies and I want you to judge for yourself: • Compeg used to have NICOR accounting Software that worked perfectly. You can go into the profile and check all the invoices and transactions and you and any other flat owner will understand the statements. For example, if you have R 54 000 in cash it shows a positive R 54 000. Simple. • Compeg then changed it in late 2019 early 2020 to MDA Accounting Software which I understand that there is hardly any technical support for it! So, if your Body Corporate have a positive R 54 000 it shows a negative -R54 000. Confusing! No scanned copies of invoices etc. to check available.

My Question: 1. How come did Compeg change from a super accounting software to an old accounting software? 2. I can not get any financial records prior 2019 on the now “Old “MDA Accounting Software, it is all lost due to the transfer etc from the previous “Perfect” NICOR Accounting Software to the current MDA accounting Software. Now you can understand why I feel and question this…. what happened to all the previous records, are the amounts still correct, can we trust the information currently etc? Where is it?

Experience:

• We requested Compeg by email to pay a 50% of the invoice to a random supplier. The CEO Mr Clive Ginsberg then paid the FULL amount of the invoice to that supplier. This work still must be done, and they are paid in full. • I have sent 2 lawyers’ letters, demanding to forward all financials and documentation for the 2021 year to the Accounting Auditors. Compeg breached their contract there and then as by the time I wrote this the Auditors still did not receive any Financials for 2021. We have numerously requested this with no luck. The CEO simply does not care. • Compeg made at several times, double and sometimes triple payments of the same monthly amount to the same supplier/company, turning our financials upside down! This was in fact for the Security Company. We are not able to balance our books because their refences are not clear. • Compeg also made payments to some suppliers with a Reference “Compeg”, and it messed up the accounting department on the supplier side as to who the payment was meant for. They did not include the reference number to qualify the payment. • Compeg was supposed to inform us as the Body Corporate about the increase in the Municipality sewer charges which City of Joburg discussed in June 2019. We only received the backdated charges in October 2020 of R 302 000. The answer from the CEO when I questioned this was: “We handle it as it comes”. This is so messy. I requested Compeg to adjust the sewer amount on the levy statements early in December 2020 for each flat owner giving ample warning and preparation time for the arrears amount.…they only adjusted that in April 2021 and it put a huge strain on the owners to catch up and pay all the backdated charges PLUS the current hike in sewer charges. Unacceptable. • In October 2018, our City of Joburg payment of R47000 was mistakenly paid to Telkom for a small office landline that is usually a R300 monthly bill. R47000 was then to be paid again from our pockets unnecessarily. These mistakes severely affect the running cost of the building. Who can afford these kinds of mistakes? Imagine phoning Telkom to get a refund, especially when the landline is still registered in a Trustees name that has since been deceased. After pulling a lot of strings and headaches, the refund only came in March 2020.

My conclusion…. This is serious! Compeg is the perfect choice to have in the case of having your AGM without any financials whatsoever. Compeg should not operate as managing Agents. They are simply not managing! For a fine financial mess, we vote Compeg!