Gwich’in Tribal Council Grand Chief Ken Kyikavichik says the organization is undergoing a forensic audit of its community governments and is suspicious that other Gwich’in have dipped into the cash.
He posted the notice in his social media group “Kenny Kyikavichik - GTC Grand Chief” at 11:15 a.m. Aug. 25. No individuals have been named in Kyikavichik’s post.
“This exercise is costing us $1 million and about a further $200,000 to track down payments made to individuals in direct conflicts of interest to Gwich’in council presidents or staff,” said Kyikavichik in his post. “This $1.2 million is the cost of continuing to elect or hire individuals who don’t possess proper experience working within organizations or those who cannot read or understand financial statements/concepts.
“A few of these individuals are now working to ‘oust’ me or seeking that I resign from my position. I can confirm that funding has now been suspended to two of our Gwich’in councils as a result of some of the findings in this report. The final report itself is in the process of being shared with the RCMP as there are some concerning transactions that occurred between 2015-2021.”
A summary presentation had been scheduled for the GTC’s annual general assembly that was planned for Aug. 15-17, but the assembly was cancelled due to concerns about wildfire safety.
In his post, Kyikavichik said many of the findings reflected issues he said have been “suspected by many for years.”
“We know that those who oppose us sharing this information have benefitted from some of these transactions,” he wrote. “They don’t want this truth to come out. The respectful way to deal with this would be one-on-one and behind closed doors, however, we are not dealing with respectful people. They avoid these discussions by not showing up or refusing to meet as leaders or creating distractions by making it personal or saying that we are doing something improper. All of it is just uunjit politics and strategies intended to confuse and divide our people.”
In slides he shared in his post, the GTC states that two designated Gwich’in organizations were at least three years overdue on the preparation and approval of audited financial statements. The slides states that “almost no financial or operational reporting was being provided by the Gwich’in councils pursuant to the contribution agreements for the GTC and its core funding.”
The audit, completed by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, cautions that AGA (annual general assembly) attendees or any third party “cannot rely, in any manner or for any purpose, on the Deloitte findings in the presentation as they were not intended for the benefit of any third party.”
It reaches seven findings. Those findings include that there were no indications of council approval for spending, with dollar amounts ranging from $124,000 to $721,000; and that there were unapproved transfers of funds between accounts, including a band council and a private corporation, ranging from $12,000 to $3.2 million. The report also finds “anomalous payments” made to council presidents, directors and staff totalling more than $150,000, “with instances of individuals approving or signing cheques to themselves.”
“Anomalous payments means bonuses, which in some cases were over and above salaries already being paid to these individuals,” wrote Kyikavichik. “There were many other findings in the final report and people should not draw conclusions based on the information included in this presentation.”
The audit also found that $86,000 in credit card transactions was spent on vehicle expenses, restaurant and travel expenses. It does not provide a date range for the credit card transactions. It finds there were sales of equipment and vehicles to staff and presidents “with no identification of council approval” and missing and/or incomplete records, such as meeting minutes and invoices. The audit also states that “during on-site documentation collection, there were files removed and unable to be collected.”
The audit makes 10 recommendations: define a vendor selection process; maintain employment files and a conflict of interest declaration; enhance and outline payment and human resources policies and procedures; enforce the use of GTC email accounts; move to electronic money transfers instead of written cheques; perform annual updates on policies; provide proper training to employees; ensure meeting minutes are properly recorded and maintained; and develop a system to maintain important documents and a system to digitize them.
Kyikavichik said in the post the audit was being forwarded to the RCMP for investigation.
“I was voted in 2020 to be the grand chief of our nation to oversee and, if required, protect our assets,” he wrote. “It is this duty that I am carrying out and if I need to be doing something different then I need to hear that from our participants. Until then, I will continue to bring truth and transparency to our organization until my term is up in the summer of 2024. All told, I ain’t going anywhere until we get to the bottom of all of this and establish systems and processes staffed with qualified people at the Gwich’in council level to better serve our over 3,500 participants both inside and outside the Gwich’in Settlement Area.”