I wouldn't be surprised, or offended. Its actually quite a good idea. When I was an accounts servant, I suffered from that 'hey, thats OUR money' syndrome (ie, local funds). But at the end of the day, the pubs believe in a united organisation, and donate their money towards that. In fact, most in my old cong found it a pain to split up their donations - no one knew how much to donate to what. I thought it would have been even better if all donations went to the society, as well as all bills. But then they would have to keep heaps of accountants employed at the branches instead of getting the most intelligent brother in each cong to play bookeeper for free :)
But I don't think it counts as a scandal! Although I do think it is another piece of evidence that the org is struggling financially. My wife brought home a new song book the other day - and its paperbacked and got black lettering instead of gold on the cover! "Money's too tight to mention"