The Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society of Prince George (IMSS) finally released financial statements during a meeting Saturday but the fact they were nearly a year old didn't sit well with some members.
Society member Travis Stringer noted during the debate to accept the auditor's statement that the financial statement offered at the annual general meeting dated for the fiscal year end of March 31, 2016 is not within the six month limit that is stated in the bylaws.
"Now we have financials that are close to a year old," said Stringer. "We should have financials dated to the end of August 2016."
Sometime during the year after the fiscal year end, Stringer said there was some major financial losses and some significant spending taking place and he felt the membership was not being properly informed of the current situation.
Despite the concerns raised the auditor's report was accepted as given.
With more than $1.3 million coming in from government funding and more than $954,000 in wages and benefits, the Immigrant and Multicultural Services Society of Prince George has more than $500,000 in cash in a general fund for the year ending March 31, 2016.
The independent auditor's report was presented Saturday, after the annual general meeting was held on Jan. 21.
During the often-heated Jan. 21 meeting, Baljit Sethi, founder and longtime executive director of IMSS, would not offer her report because she didn't want to air dirty laundry in public. That resulted in the formation of an investigative committee to see if there are any possible operational irregularities within the society.
During Saturday's meeting, David Halikowski said it's been challenging to do the investigation.
The committee consists of Halikowski, a member of the public, and three members of the society including Jameel Khan, Sandy Long and Stringer.
A second member of the public, Moustafa Beryk, quit the committee a week after its formation, citing a conflict of interest as he socializes with board members of IMSS and didn't feel comfortable performing the investigation, Halikowski said. The committee will remain operating with its four members going forward.
Initially, the committee had some issues accessing documents from the board.
"The committee had asked to see applications for individuals who had not been granted IMSS membership," said Halikowski.
"The board refused access to these forms citing confidentiality and privacy issues."
The committee was not interested in seeing who applied but rather why they were not granted membership.
The documents were eventually given to the committee.
The freeze on membership is the first issue under investigation. The board states they put a freeze on membership to protect the society from those who wish to do harm, despite their own constitution that states the society is open to all.
A recommendation by the investigative committee is to approve all applicants who wish to be members of the society and backdating those memberships to the date they were received.
The committee determined there are six applicants that have not been approved in the last six months and recommend they be allowed to become members.
The investigative committee also recommended following the B.C. Society's Act for all procedures regarding membership as numbers were at 185 members in the past and now there are only 43 members.
The investigative committee also said there are at least four other areas of concern: including the executive director's succession and retirement; the management of operations which saw sizable losses when two key employees were terminated, prompting several other employees to quit; the remuneration of directors; and the internal operations, which include the status of qualification levels held by current staff that are required by funders of programs offered at IMSS.
Committee members would not comment further on any of the issues they are currently investigating.
