These false claims were first documented by Jeweller on 10 April. The JAA board had claimed it had recorded losses in only two of the past ten years; however, it had actually incurred losses in four years.
This intriguing blunder occurred as part of a response to a letter distributed to industry suppliers by Expertise Events managing director Gary Fitz-Roy on 12 March.
The letter provided further context for the failure of the JAA’s Supplier Sub Committee. It addressed a range of other matters and noted that the JAA had "recorded losses over the past decade.”
The letter did not specify the number of years or the amount of money that the JAA had lost.
Nineteen days after Fitz-Roy’s letter was sent to suppliers, the JAA published a statement on its website titled 'Clarification regarding JAA Suppliers Sub Committee’. It said that the board "believes it is appropriate to clarify several factual matters".
The board noted: "The JAA also wishes to clarify that the suggestion the Association has recorded losses over the past decade. The Association has been financially stable overall, with the limited instances of two reported losses attributable to clearly identifiable and explainable factors."
Fitz-Roy’s claim about the JAA’s financial losses was factually correct, and the JAA’s unfortunate decision to challenge it led to directors making misleading and/or false claims about the association’s financial affairs.
The JAA’s latest financial report revealed a $21,000 loss, following a $48,000 loss in 2019. Importantly, the JAA also lost money in two other financial years: 2017 ($107,000) and 2016 ($14,000).
As mentioned, this false claim was documented by Jeweller in a report published on 10 April. Four days later, on 14 April, the JAA addressed its error with a two-sentence correction, suggesting that it was a misstatement due to “an inadvertent error".
"The JAA wishes to clarify that a previous reference to the number of loss-making years over the past decade was misstated due to an inadvertent error. This clarification does not alter the Association’s overall financial position or direction," it reads.
The admission of the error and the publication of the correction were made without notice to the industry and without disclosure to the media.
Importantly, the JAA replied to two emails from Jeweller after it had published the correction, the first on 16 April and the second on 29 April. Neither email mentioned nor referred to the correction published on 14 April.
Background reading: The Great Reset: JAA hits rock bottom
Beyond failing to detail the specifics of the error, the JAA has also opted to leave the original false claims published on its website, despite altering the statement to include the correction.
Said another way, the JAA website still incorrectly claims it recorded two financial losses over the past decade – a false claim that is accompanied by a correction acknowledging this inaccuracy but failing to provide the actual figure: four losses within 10 years.
Since this correction was published on 14 April, the JAA has not responded to repeated requests for clarification on why the error was not identified before publication.
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