Metis issues overshadowed financial woes

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Metis Nation of Saskatchewan president Gerald Morin said his organization chose to deal with other issues and postponed acting on recommendations from contributors to get the MNS financial house in order.

The result, according to a Deloitte and Touche audit, is $700,000 in errors and mistakes in accounting over the last two-year period and a possible deficit of unknown proportion for 1994.

"We didn't fully appreciate that the problems existed until this January," said Morin, though he acknowledged the financial problems were identified to the Metis Nation soon after a January 1993 financial review of its books by Canadian Heritage and Justice Canada.

"And you know, we had our annual assembly in the early part of December where we concentrated exclusively on this new constitution and self-government, and then Christmas came around and the holiday.

"But as soon as we returned from the holidays, the first week of January the finance committee was put in place and that was one of the recommendations that was identified to us a year ago," said Morin.

MNS was concentrating on land claims, the adoption of a new constitution, and Metis hunting rights and these issues overshadowed the group's financial responsibilities, he said.

"We've focused on Metis rights almost to the exclusion of internal administration and accounting issues," Morin said. "The problems that have been identified in the audit were poor account practices, poor administration which led to a lack of internal controls that brought about a number of problems in terms of accounting. It resulted in errors. Mistakes were made."

Those mistakes include missing documentation, unrecorded expenditures and, in 130 cases, double billing on expense accounts.

Morin insists nothing criminal or fraudulent has been identified in the report and the errors are due to weaknesses in the system.

As to possible criminal charges against those who double-dipped, Morin says it's a matter for the government and the RCMP.

"We can't lay charges on our own people.

However, individuals who received double payments may be required to reimburse MNS," said Morin.

"We're determined to deal with every single issue that's been identified by the auditor. We're determined to turn the situation around and we'll take whatever measures are necessary to accomplish those objectives."

Morin said the Metis Nation was just doing business the way it has done it for the past 20 years - a way of doing business that has been condoned by previous governments.

Morin insists MNS hasn't made any mistakes to any greater extent than any provincial or federal government has in the past. He said Aboriginal people should be allowed to go through the process of learning and growing.

"We've made mistakes and we'll learn from the mistakes. That's what self-government is all about."