Arviat (Feb 22/06) - Charges are pending in the theft of $25,000 from Arviat's Kiluk Ltd. (sewing centre).

The centre falls under the umbrella of the Nunavut Development Corp (NDC).

NDC financial controller Darrin Nichol said the missing money was discovered during a routine audit of Kiluk's books this past October.

Nichol said the money was not stolen in one lump sum, but in a series of smaller thefts during a 12-month period.

"The matter has been turned over to the Arviat RCMP."

Nichol said although internal fraud is a national issue and not unique to Nunavut, it can tend to be problematic in the North.

"We're very small and, generally, have a limited number of people within the organization.

"Hence, we're often unable to implement the necessary segregation of duties to ensure proper checks and balances are in place throughout the administrative system to prevent such an incident from occurring.

"We are working with the RCMP to determine options available to us in recouping the stolen money."

The $25,000 represents about one-eighth of the centre's annual revenues.

Nichol said the theft shouldn't cast a shadow over Kiluk or the NDC.

He said the NDC was able to pick up on the fraud relatively quickly.

"At its outset, the fraud was quite minimal during the course of the 2005 summer. "Going into the fall it became quite acute, at which time we picked up and acted upon it the only way we could.

"We uncovered it, dealt with it and now we're working to rectify it."

Nichol said there is significant disappointment among the Arviat directors concerning the theft.

He said the NDC has a committed board at Kiluk, whose members provide governance to the organization.

"The directors were surprised and saddened to learn of the situation.

"It's had a negative impact on the operation from a monetary perspective, because that's a sizeable sum to go missing from a small company.

"It did prove a limiting factor as to what the company could do initially, but we're over that."

Nichol said the theft sent a shockwave throughout the company.

"The matter was a wake-up call for us and we've learned from it.

"We've taken steps within the NDC to implement policies which, hopefully, will prevent this from happening in the future.

"We've taken a bad situation and tried to make the best of it."

Arviat RCMP Cpl. Greg Sutherland said the detachment has been given the official report from the NDC and is continuing its investigation into the matter.

"The investigation is still ongoing, so no official charges have been laid as yet," said Sutherland.

"However, the charges are pending and, most likely, will be laid in the near future.

"We're holding off for the moment because we're discussing with the Crown whether to bring forward theft or fraud charges.

"While the charges are similar, there are certain implications attached to each one and we want to ensure we proceed in the right direction."