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Hereford United chairman David Keyte has spoken to BBC Hereford and Worcester about the difference in approach being taken by him as opposed to when Graham Turner was chairman at Edgar Street.
Keyte was asked how the £45K VAT debt had come about.
"The VAT element is basic book-keeping," said Keyte.
"It will be a missed invoice, or an invoice claimed twice or something like that and the VAT officers have the job of going out to check these things.
"No accusations of fraud.
"It's a pile of invoices that appear to have been claimed in one quarter and then, mistakenly, claimed the next quarter."
Asked were all the books straight when he took over, DK replied that was an impossible question.
"You do your due diligence, but nobody goes into every single invoice in every single year.
"It was in the year 2008/09 under Graham Turner's management.
"Myself and Tim Russon went in June 2010."
Turner claims he left the club with a healthy balance.
"In financial terms Graham left a good amount of money in the bank account, £450,000, but there was, and has been for a number of years, a debt of over £1M over the club.
"What we are saying is that there were two different approaches to the financial side of the club - whether you operate on a week to week cash basis and ignore the long term debt or whether, as is my approach, to try and get hold of the company and I think that's a significent difference.
"Hereford United 1939 Ltd is a company which had a debt of over a £1M which did not have the leases to the ground due to that debt.
"My approach when entering into it was not to just carry on from three o'clock to three o'clock every Saturday with football only it was to try and pick up the company and take it forward for the longer term good of Hereford United."
H&W : "You inherited that £1M debt despite having £450K in the bank?"
"Clear as day. Every shareholder knows that," continued Keyte.
"The company books were negative because of the long-term debt. Nobody had made any inroads into it.
"That was a strategic decision of the previous management. That was their choice. They effectively left the debt on one side."
H&W : "You're picking up a £0.5M debt - Graham Turner would say he left the club in a very healthy state. I would question if that's right"
DK : "It's not for me to question Graham's approach to finance but shareholders of the company are fully aware that yes there was a steady build up of cash over ten years which is excellent in it's own right.
H&W : "Would you have done that?"
DK : "Clearly not, my approach was to get hold of the company and steer it's own destiny. You can't do that if somebodyelse owns the leases to the football ground you play on.
"We've used the cash to buy back the leases for the longer term progress of the club. At this time, two and a bit years later, we've not had a clear oppurtunity to develope the football ground.
"I can assure you that the £450,000 that went in to buy the leases would be a small figure compared with what you would get in return."
The interview then turned to Saturday's FA Cup game against Shrewsbury.
"I think (ticket sales) have gone through the 3,000 mark including season tickets.
"A great occasion for us, perfect in the circumstances.
"Great to get Graham back here with all the ingredients of him bringing Shrewsbury Town to os again.
"They're not doing quite so well this time in League One, albeit two Leagues above us.
"I think it will be the crowd, or can be the crowd, that get us through this one if everybody continues this getting behind the club mentality that's clearly around in this last week or ten days.
"We've had £20K of donations from various people which is superb and it's that togetherness that could well get us through on Saturday."
"What we are saying is that there were two different approaches to the financial side of the club - whether you operate on a week to week cash basis and ignore the long term debt or whether, as is my approach, to try and get hold of the company and I think that's a significent difference.
"Hereford United 1939 Ltd is a company which had a debt of over a £1M which did not have the leases to the ground due to that debt.
"My approach when entering into it was not to just carry on from three o'clock to three o'clock every Saturday with football only it was to try and pick up the company and take it forward for the longer term good of Hereford United."
H&W : "You inherited that £1M debt despite having £450K in the bank?"
"Clear as day. Every shareholder knows that," continued Keyte.
"The company books were negative because of the long-term debt. Nobody had made any inroads into it.
"That was a strategic decision of the previous management. That was their choice. They effectively left the debt on one side."
H&W : "You're picking up a £0.5M debt - Graham Turner would say he left the club in a very healthy state. I would question if that's right"
DK : "It's not for me to question Graham's approach to finance but shareholders of the company are fully aware that yes there was a steady build up of cash over ten years which is excellent in it's own right.
H&W : "Would you have done that?"
DK : "Clearly not, my approach was to get hold of the company and steer it's own destiny. You can't do that if somebodyelse owns the leases to the football ground you play on.
"We've used the cash to buy back the leases for the longer term progress of the club. At this time, two and a bit years later, we've not had a clear oppurtunity to develope the football ground.
"I can assure you that the £450,000 that went in to buy the leases would be a small figure compared with what you would get in return."
The interview then turned to Saturday's FA Cup game against Shrewsbury.
"I think (ticket sales) have gone through the 3,000 mark including season tickets.
"A great occasion for us, perfect in the circumstances.
"Great to get Graham back here with all the ingredients of him bringing Shrewsbury Town to os again.
"They're not doing quite so well this time in League One, albeit two Leagues above us.
"I think it will be the crowd, or can be the crowd, that get us through this one if everybody continues this getting behind the club mentality that's clearly around in this last week or ten days.
"We've had £20K of donations from various people which is superb and it's that togetherness that could well get us through on Saturday."
