Statement from the Chairman of the Board

The TIO has completed an extremely challenging year with complaint demand increasing 53.6% after an increase of 46.1% in the previous year. The positive news is that there has been a plateau in complaint demand over the past few months and hopefully this will continue across the year. While it may be early to judge, the connect.resolve campaign may have had an impact on this stabilisation of complaints in the latter part of the year.

Membership of the Scheme remained fairly static at 1 125, although 113 new members joined and 94 departed.

Strategic initiatives

The Board undertook a number of strategic initiatives throughout the year. In particular, it commissioned a review of the TIO funding model by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The review addressed a number of issues, including the frequency of billing and the level of the TIO reserve. The Board and management acted on these recommendations. The Board also appointed new external auditors and introduced internal auditors to the company. Other initiatives included a revised financial reporting and risk management framework and the introduction of a formal delegations manual. The Board also undertook further skills development through the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

The Board undertook a number of strategic initiatives throughout the year, including commissioning a review of the TIO funding model.

The TIO recorded a surplus in 2008/09 which was developed to fund capital expenditure in the coming year. In particular the company will commence to upgrade its core IT systems to cope with the growth in the Scheme over the last eight years and to match the effectiveness and efficiency of its systems with the levels of service required by both complainants and industry member companies.

Changes to the Board

There have been some changes to the Board during the year, with Leisa Fielding (Telstra) replacing John Parkin (Telstra) as a Director, and John assuming Leisa’s previous role of Alternate Director.

I would like to thank all the Directors for their efforts in a difficult year. I would also like to thank the TIO Council for their hard work and contribution and particularly the new Chair of Council, Virginia Hickey.

In a very demanding year I would like to thank all of the TIO staff who have worked very diligently and especially thank the Ombudsman, Deirdre O’Donnell, the Deputy Ombudsman, Simon Cleary and the management team.

John Rohan
Chairman of the Board

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