By Patrick Burles - @PatrickBurles on Twitter

Community concerns spark investigation into Blood Tribe Agricultural Project

Nov 9, 2016 | 10:04 AM

BLOOD RESERVE – Community concerns that led to a review and forensic audit of the Blood Tribe Agricultural Project (BTAP), have revealed a significant list of concerns connected to the operation.

The BTAP was started in 1991 to boost agricultural investment and to create incentives for job creation in the Blood Tribe, while overseeing the Blood Tribe Farming Initiative (Blood Tribe Ranch), Sawkee Feedlot Inc., Blood Band Farms Ltd., 709204 AB Ltd. (Blood Tribe Forage Processing Plant) and Aokkii Property Management. 

The 18 concerns brought to Blood Tribe Chief and Council (included at the bottom of the page) highlighted questions of improper employment practices, a failure to provide audited financial statements and nepotism.

In a forensic review of BTAP – conducted by independent firm, BDO Canada LLP, and posted on the Blood Tribe’s website – it was revealed that on April 19, 2016, Chief and Council passed a motion calling for a forensic audit of BTAP and a co-management agreement to provide management assistance. When the BTAP Board of Directors refused, council requisitioned a meeting of the shareholders, who removed Frank Black Plume, Al Black Water, Myron Eagle Speaker and Bill Wadsworth from the board. They were replaced by Mike Bruised Head, Kyla Crow, Lance Tail Feathers and Franklyn White Quills.

“This whole review did not happen overnight,” explained Bruised Head, who has taken over as the new board chair. “The previous council, to my understanding, two or three wanted to sort of go through an investigation or research, as a polite word, the operations of BTAP… but I understand they did not get support, so there was already some red flags coming up at that time.

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“Eventually, tribal members started giving us little calls and former employees that were released from BTAP and all these other operations started writing letters to council and meeting with individual councilmen, and from there it slowly escalated.”

After officially taking over on May 16, 2016, the new board entered co-management and requested a forensic review from BDO.

BDO started by requesting financial information from April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2016, however, due to the significant volume of transactions over the time period, they tested a three month sample from April 1 to June 30, 2015 for each of the entities under BTAP.

In BDO’s review, they say BTAP had an overall negative cash position during the sample period, noting that they were overdrawn by more than $1.5-million as of April 1, 2015. By the end of the sample period it would improve only slightly, moving to just over $1.3-million.

A lack of financial policies and procedures, weak oversight regarding authorizations and approvals for cash disbursements and poor internal controls in regards to record keeping were noted by BDO.

Over the three month sample period, they discovered that the board of directors received $74,822.41 for meetings and travel, but no board meeting minutes were found for any of the two year period. Also the business purpose for meetings and travel was not clear, especially regarding trips to the United States.

Inconsistencies showed up in crop advances and cattle purchases, with limited or no documentation for payments to people, and payments to individuals related to staff or the former board of directors were paid without the necessary supporting documentation.

After receiving the update from BDO and with a number of community members calling for action, Bruised Head noted that the matter was taken to the police.

“There is a process and this is where the police come in, and so we’ve met briefly with the Blood Tribe Police, they’re going to review the document, and if they need to, then they’ll work with the RCMP Investigative Unit, and so right now the matter is in police hands,” stated Bruised Head.

He noted that with a band election this month, which could see new councilors brought in who are unfamiliar with the matter taking over as the board of directors, getting the police involved will ensure it doesn’t fall off the radar.

“The motion and the wheels are in place. Just because there’s going to be new councilmen, the police investigation is going to be ongoing, because if somebody interferes with that then they’re going to have to deal with the police and the process probably of obstruction of justice, obstruction of an investigation,” said Bruised Head. “I wouldn’t want to go there, and I think people or the candidates running for new council, new leadership, I think they’re going to have to see it through, because if not, then they’re going to end up having a very serious rebuttal from tribal members on the social side, on the tribal side.”

While Bruised Head will be running for re-election, he acknowledged that his involvement in the process could end, saying that it’s important for tribe members to get the answers they have been looking for.

“BTAP belongs to Blood Tribe, not one individual, not one group, it belongs to the people, and that’s why the 18 concerns were brought forward, and nothing was really answered on the 18 from the previous personnel.

“We don’t even know how money was handled,” Bruised Head continued. “I’m not going to personalize it, but you know, it’s like if you had an operation and your employees were running on the minus side, you [would] quit spending money… They didn’t have money to do a lot of these things, so it was just kind of staying afloat month by month. Any other business, if I could use the outside world, would probably have shut down.”

You can see the full BDO forensic review by clicking here.

Shareholder Concerns

1. Failure to provide audited Financial Statements for each corporation
2. Failure to have Annual General Meetings for each corporation
3. Intermingling of funds between corporations and initiatives
4. Debts owed to various individuals and entities
5. Loans being taken by corporations without adequate, or any, reporting to shareholders
6. Bank accounts opened under initiatives or projects as opposed to corporations and Blood Tribe protocol not followed for signing authorities
7. Failure to report to Blood Tribe pursuant to Blood Tribe Financial Administration Code
8. Failing to contact all board members (i.e. Chief) for any board meetings held for BTAP or KABC or SAWKEE
9. Failing to contact Chief as ex-officio of any meetings held by an corporation
10. Identification of ownership of various equipment purchased
11. Failure to follow process with respect to permitting on Blood Tribe lands
12. Failure to provide rental payments to Blood Tribe under Headlease
13. Failure to enter into end-user sub-agreements on a timely basis with farmers under Headlease
14. Allegations of nepotism and improper employment practices
15. Entering into side agreements with farmers with respect to Blood Tribe lands
16. Coercion tactics used with farmers
17. Failure to obtain council consent prior to comitting to farmers for 2016 agricultural year
18. Entering into forage agreements with occupants without the necessary permits
(Note corporations are non-Blood Tribe members and require permits as well as third party farmers)

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