Iqaluit HTO produces sketchy financial records

“If these were my own financial statements, I would probably be worried”

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

SARA MINOGUE

The Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association released their long-awaited 2002-03 and 2003-04 financial statements at their annual general meeting in Iqaluit last week, but members are not satisfied that the numbers are accurate.

The HTO was “unable to produce financial statements” for 2002-03 at last year’s annual general meeting, chairperson Michael Qappik said.

New statements released on Dec. 7, show that in the 2003-04 fiscal year, the HTO had total revenues of $136,785, and total expenses of $152,578, for a net loss of $15,793.

In the previous year, the HTO had $105,885 in revenue with $135,426 in expenses, for a net loss of $29,541.

A budget for 2004-05 projects a loss next year of $2,735.

The financial losses are one concern, but several members in the audience of about 100 also rose to question the accuracy of those numbers.

Madeleine Redfern pointed out that the HTO’s boat was not listed as an asset on the balance sheets in 2003 or 2004. She later noticed that over $9,000 in auditors’ fees were listed last year, even though no audited statements were ever produced.

Redfern also asked to see the financial statements for Quliruaq, the business arm of the HTO, which funnels money to the organization.

David Alexander asked why income tax in 2004 was twice as high as last year, and whether the bill had been paid.

Natsiq Kango said that she was happy to finally see the 2002-03 statements that she had pressed for last year, but said that she would like to see financial statements approved by an auditor.

After about half an hour of questions, Victor Tootoo asked why the person who had made the statements was not present to answer questions.

Office manager Judah Innualuk explained that he had produced the statements from the records that were available.

But those records were somewhat sketchy, as illustrated by Jeetaloo Kakee, one of the five directors on the HTO’s board.

“We had no manager in the past. Just someone who moved all of the papers around,” Kakee said, while picking up papers on the table in front of him and dropping them on the floor. Now that the HTO has an office manager, “we are still looking for those papers,” he said, picking them up again.

Among the papers lost were the minutes of last year’s annual general meeting.

The Amarok chairperson apologized for not producing audited statements, but was confident that things at the disorganized organization were turning around.

“If we keep up with what we’re doing now since we started in April, we’re going to show a lot better results next year,” Qappik told Nunatsiaq News.

Tootoo rose again with a partial solution to the current problem.

“I don’t think that it’s an absolute requirement that this organization has audited financial statements,” he said. “But the membership is not comfortable with the information here.”

“If these were my own financial statements, I would probably be worried,” Tootoo said, looking over the three-year losses.

Tootoo then volunteered to help produce financial statements that “the membership can have faith in,” and received applause.

The HTO later agreed to defer the passing of next year’s budget until the membership had more faith in the financial statements.

Madeleine Redfern introduced another motion for the board to hold a special meeting within 60 days to present the new statements to the members.

The motion was carried with applause.

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