It's close to Halifax.
Oh My Lord. I love Nova Scotia.
It's so easy to see the connection between house designs and ship building and how hard it must have been for the first settlers to keep body and soul to-gether in that rocky place. Once again, I didn't get to Cape Breton.
But while we were in Halifax, a political drama was unfolding nearby. The Mayor and six Councillors resigned en masse in Bridgton. There were problems with finances Stealing was thought to be a possibility. . But as I read the story, it wasn't at all clear,.
Bridgton has 650 or 950 population, depending on which news story I read. It seems taxes paid were not recorded . But payees denied that and produced receipts.
It looked like water bills might not have been collected for two years.
And nobody noticed . That's what I can't figure.
Bridgton had been economically well off with several thriving industries. Then they left.
How much of a budget can you have with a population of 650/950 people? That would probably be about four hundred properties.
Four or five people worked in the town office. Probably not many more in the works department. Probably a volunteer fire department. Though I think the town is part of the Halifax region. How did the school board get money to pay the teachers. The Region would need to get a share?
Pay cheques have to be issued. Bills paid. How could there be such a mess and nobody notice?
Apparently the Mayor and Council , when they realised how serious the situation was, decided to resign to step aside and let the Province take responsibility and provide the finances to sort it out.
A forensic audit is being carried out. It will take three months. It will cost $125,000.
A civil servant has been appointed Mayor and two others as councillors to run the municipality in the meantime.
It was soooo sooo interesting.
I had been pondering the nature of a forensic audit before I went to Halifax. I had heard the phrase but didn't know what it meant. How it might come about?How much would it cost? Would it be less than a public inquiry? Public inquiries cost millions and generally nothing much comes out of it but infomation that reflects badly on all concerned.
I got the answer in Halifax. Although to be honest, I read the story in the Globe and Mail before I went.
It was neat though to be nearly on the spot where it was happening .
I wondered how could a tiny municipality like Bridgton with such a small population get into such a mess without the Mayor and Council knowing about it until their only option was to resign.
They probably had an idea but didn't like to say
The Mayor was quoted , they decided to step aside for a forensic audit to be conducted at the province's expense, to find out who or what had gone wrong.
Was money going where it shouldn't ?
Was it not coming in at all?
Or because whoever was supposed to be bringing it in had gone fishin', or for a liquid lunch, or lost their wits or or cavorting with a computer salesman like in Toronto's multi-million dollar computer scandal.
Mayor David Miller and Council apparently didn't notice what was going on there under their noses either.
I mean, were they sleep-walking or what ?
Did they imagine their job was strictly decorative?
There's no sensible answer.
Sounds like maybe bullshit can baffle brains no matter where.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
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4 comments:
One thing remains absolutely certain Councilor, there is no amount of "Bullshit" that will Baffel your brain, and thank god for that small mercy, lord only knows what could have happend to our little Town
I worked for a provincially funded organization once that underwent a forensic audit at the time that it transitioned from one entity to another. I have no idea how much it cost. As part of the transition we, in management gradually became aware that important information had been kept from us. For example, the staffing levels approved by the province had never been revealed to us accurately. In other words, there was money to pay for many more positions than we we were told to recruit. Where did the money go? How wasit spent?
There was obviously enough evidence to suspect that all was not well in the administering of finances - hence to province's decision to conduct a forensic audit.
Unfortunately it could prove nothing and of course solid proof is absolutely necessary in order to take action.
I guess a forensic audit can only produce as much evidence as the talents of those who are misdirecting the money. The better the "book cookers", the less likely it is to uncover the shady accounting.
I worked for a provincially funded organization once that underwent a forensic audit at the time that it transitioned from one entity to another. I have no idea how much it cost. As part of the transition we, in management gradually became aware that important information had been kept from us. For example, the staffing levels approved by the province had never been revealed to us accurately. In other words, there was money to pay for many more positions than we we were told to recruit. Where did the money go? How wasit spent?
There was obviously enough evidence to suspect that all was not well in the administering of finances - hence to province's decision to conduct a forensic audit.
Unfortunately it could prove nothing and of course solid proof is absolutely necessary in order to take action.
I guess a forensic audit can only produce as much evidence as the talents of those who are misdirecting the money. The better the "book cookers", the less likely it is to uncover the shady accounting.
David Miller was interviewed on CBC this morning. Despite his alleged ignorance about what was going on during his term as mayor, he has landed a prestigious position at NYU that looks at the global importance of sustainable cities (talk about bullshit and words baffling brains!).
The world does not seem to change, no matter what people do - or fail to do/see,they are still promoted to the level of their incompetence or handed nice little positions that pay a bundle.
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