Stephanie Bailey uploaded a file. ATTENTION! This is a memo from Councilor Ed Bassett to the JTC (transparency for us, the people) ~ See attached *but I copied and pasted for easier access.) I appreciate having this perspective. It shows good use of ethics to question authority and I want to be part of an emergency meeting to hear some answers to this inquiry. To: Tribal Chiefs and Joint Tribal Council Members From: Council Member, Ed Bassett Date: September 11, 2013 Re: Joint Tribal Finances and Accountability Please see attached PDF for supporting documentation for the concerns I write to you. Forestry: Today I discovered that both Tribal Chiefs authorized a line of credit through Bangor Savings Bank to be used by the Pestomuhkati Mawukah Corporation (PM). On March 12, 2012 the JTC took tribal forestry away from this corrupt corporation. PM corporation has no legal authority to manage or be involved with the tribal forestry. The amount on this Line of Credit is not known at this time. A line of credit is the same thing as authorizing a loan! I am not aware of any approval or authorization from the JTC that allowed the PM Corporation, the Chiefs or Tribal Forestry to enter into a loan or to obligate the tribe with a line of credit. Attached is a loan document and it appears that Ernest Neptune gave himself a loan out of the Forestry Department for the amount of $1,411.05 dollars. Also attached is a requisition for payment to Ernest Neptune for meetings and travel to do non-forestry activities. Tomah Water, Wind Energy and Gaming Development are not forestry activities. I am not sure if this was paid out (signatures missing) however, this activity is not within the scope of forestry. Eddie Dugay d/b/a Harvest Consulting, LLC (see attached) was paid $4,423 dollars from Pestomuhkati Mawukah to do work for 2 months as a consultant for multiple enterprise development related activities. There may be more payments to Dugay but I only have documents showing 2 months. In my review of the forestry budget adopted by the JTC I found nothing that authorized forestry to pay Dugay for this kind of contractual or consultant work. Dugay’s activities with enterprise development, planning, economic development, attending political meetings, and other business development was not authorized by the JTC nor is it written in the forestry budget. I have additional supporting documentation for the above as well as other transactions. I am concerned that these questionable transactions of waste, fraud and abuse may be much more extensive. The JTC just recently gave $300 thousand dollars to bail out tribal forestry. This is not the type of activity that Ernie was crying for when he was asking the tribe to fund a bail out of the Forestry Department. Where are the checks and balances and internal controls? Why have the Chiefs allowed this to happen? Are there any BIA funds currently being mis-used in Forestry? Where is the financial oversight and internal controls? Why have the Chiefs allowed the corrupt corporation Pestomuhkati Mawukah to be involved in tribal forestry? Other JTC issues: Based on my records, the following are active Joint Tribal Council accounts and/or programs that are supposed to be under the JTC authority. There may be other financial accounts and activity that I am not aware of. 1. Bank and checking accounts at “The First” (and maybe other banks) 2. Passamaquoddy Forestry financial accounts 3. Bear Revenue account 4. Camp Lot Revenue account The above information hit me very hard and I am concerned that the tribe has not learned any lessons from past corruption. No wonder our tribal people don’t trust tribal government! There is no accountability! I pray the Chiefs and all members of the Joint Tribal Council do the right thing and take control back! Recommendations: 1. Hold an emergency Joint Council Meeting ASAP 2. REVOKE this unauthorized line-of-credit 3. Stop all forestry activities under the Pestomuhkati Mawukah corporation name. 4. Eliminate the Dugay contract/consultant services in forestry 5. JTC hire an independent audit firm to conduct an investigation into the waste, fraud and abuse of the forestry funds and program. Determine how widespread the extent of the abuse is in Forestry. 6. Find an independent audit firm to conduct an annual audit on all Joint Tribal Council programs, activities, funds and accounts. 7. Report the findings to the people 8. If wrongdoing is found, refer complaint out for court action and prosecution. There are more than enough previous decisions and history that requires the JTC to be accountable for its financial activity. We need to put some attention and energy into being responsible and making the JTC an accountable and transparent entity. Right now our highest governing body, the Joint Tribal Council is a disaster and an embarrassment. This must be #1 priority. If the Chiefs cannot or will not make this happen then the JTC will need to meet to mandate this to be carried out. We should meet anyway to authorize an investigation! Both tribal constitutions require financial accountability. Under the constitutions the JTC shall present an accounting of the financial status of the tribe at least once each year. This has not been done. January 25, 1993 the JTC passed a resolution stating that the expenditure of JTC funds is authorized only in accordance with an approved JTC budget with monthly reports of all expenditures provided to all members of the JTC. JTC funds are currently being spent with no accounting. JTC bylaws Subsection 2 (c) states in part that…..the order of business for each meeting shall be that at each regular meeting, a report be done of the financial activity of the JTC since the last regular meeting. No financial reports are provided and no regular meetings held (only special meetings). Audits – There has been no JTC audits done since 2004-05. However, there continues to be financial activity within the JTC funds and accounts and money continues to be spent regularly without any accounting. March 28, 2006 – At a JTC meeting there was much concern about financial accountability by members of the JTC. One council member, Bill Nicholas asks, “when is the JTC going to get financial statements and audits.” April 12, 2006 – The JTC passed a resolution that the bear revenue would go through the Passamaquoddy Forestry (Mawukah corporation) for accounting purposes only. Today the corporation is just a shell and is no longer authorized to conduct tribal forestry business. On 3-12-12 the Tribal Forestry program was taken back under the authority of the JTC (see below). Forestry nor the corporation handle any of the bear account funds. Audit of JTC – Several years ago the JTC decided to get new auditor. Both Governors were to seek a new auditing firm and to bring back their recommendation to JTC for approval. This was not done. JTC Quarterly Financial Reports – The JTC has required quarterly financial reports for several years. This requirement was reaffirmed by the JTC on November 28, 2006 by a unanimous vote. This JTC action requires that finances and accounting be placed on the JTC agenda on a quarterly basis to account for all JTC funds and accounts. In the same meeting the JTC passed a separate resolution that lists four separate accounts under the JTC at two different banks. No financial reports have been done and the JTC accounts continue to spend money out of these accounts. July 8, 2009 – The JTC decided to take action on the bear revenue and the camp lot revenue funds. The JTC decided that these funds were to be deposited into, distributed by and accounted by the Forestry department. This was not done. March 12, 2012 – Due to mis-management and possible illegal activities the JTC took all forestry management away from the Pestomuhkati Mawukah Corporation. The JTC assumed the full management of the Forestry program and operations as a Joint Tribal Council program. The JTC put all Pestomuhkati Mawukah Corporation employees and finances under the JTC. From that day forward the Pestomuhkati Mawukah Corporation was no longer authorized to manage or be involved with any of the tribal forestry operations including financial affairs. At the meeting the JTC also talked about dissolving the corporation. But the JTC was not sure if it could legally do this since it the
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 01:59:20 +0000
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