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Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Ishmael Naulalik has been with the Radio Committee since 1999.
He says the committee was never informed it was responsible for keeping complete financial records.
"Most of the committee members are elders, and they don't know a lot about proper paperwork and bookkeeping," says Naulalik.
"Why did the hamlet tell us these things now? If they had let us know in the past -- these are the things we're supposed to do -- everything would have been done."
Finance officer Rob Hedley says the hamlet had no choice but to revoke bingo privileges after a random audit showed its financial books were in disarray.
He says the Radio Committee applied for an extra bingo slot two years ago so it could buy a transmitter to start a radio station.
"That year the hamlet generated almost $200,000 in bingo revenues and they should have generated about the same amount," says Hedley.
"The audit only showed about $40,000 in their bank account and there was no work done in obtaining the transmitter."
Naulalik says when the committee was informed it was going to be audited, it turned over all the paperwork it had at the radio station.
He says members were also surprised to find out they were supposed to have an actual payroll done for their employees.
"We never knew any of these things. We tried to make it right by changing our name at a public meeting and reapplying for a new licence.
"The hamlet refused us a second chance and told us they were going to form their own radio society and start their own station. Nobody at the Radio Committee did anything wrong."
Hedley estimates the committee grossed about $300,000 in bingo revenues during the past two years.
A transmitter falls in the $35,000 to $40,000 range.
"The audit showed their books to be so incomplete that they were basically saying what they deposited into the bank was all they made," says Heldey.
