AUSTRALIAN Dairy Farmers still officially claims to have 15 directors on its board.

This is despite nine of those having departed the organisation three months ago. That's according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission documents yesterday.

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However, chief executive of the national dairy farmer lobby group, Natalie Collard, told The Weekly Times yesterday the remaining director changes were submitted by post on Friday after a "mistake" by ADF's external governance provider.

According to the ASIC website, any changes to company details should be notified within 28 days of when the change occurred.

The Weekly Times understands if these forms are lodged up to a month late it could incur a fee of $70, more than a month it could cost the company $292 for late lodgement.

When contacted on Monday ASIC said it didn't comment about individual companies.

The ADF changed its constitution in August after years of debate and this resulted in a smaller national board, 14 members down to five.

Not all of these changes have been reflected in ASIC documents yet.

However, two director changes were submitted early last week. These were the appointments of Anne Astin and Paul Timbs as directors and the removal of Terry Toohey.

The Weekly Times investigation revealed:

June 1 ASIC changes details of one director;

August The ADF changes its constitution;

November 2 ASIC gets and processes ADF financial report;

November 20, 9.15am The Weekly Times queries the ADF about reporting director changes;

November 20 ASIC receives and processes change to two directors;

November 23 The ADF says it submitted remaining changes by post.

Last Tuesday, Ms Collard said she understood the forms for changes to directors had been lodged.

A day later, after the changes to directors were lodged and processed with ASIC, Ms Collard said she had phoned the organisation's external service provider responsible for ADF governance the day before, after The Weekly Times inquiry, to follow-up on the documents.

Yesterday she confirmed a "mistake" was made at the service providers end.

The ADF will hold its AGM in Melbourne tomorrow and will elect a new president.