From my WORK BLOG... After having a muchly needed sleep-in, I'm now getting ready to meet with the KSA lawyers this afternoon in downtown Vancouver. For those of you who may not read our minutes and agendas too closely, the KSA is represented by David B. Borins with Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy, LLP. Information on David can be found here:
http://www.farris.com/lawyer.aspx?LawyerKey=7
Information on the firm in general can be found here:
http://www.farris.com/our_firm.aspx
After that meeting, we'll be meeting with Tompkins, Wozny, Miller & Co., an accounting firm that specializes in delivering audit, tax and consulting services. The firm does the auditing of many student unions and other non-profit organizations across BC. They were selected by the membership to continue as the KSA's regular auditors at the last AGM held in March 2005. Specifically, we will be meeting with them to discuss doing an audit for the 2006 fiscal year. The firm's site appears to be currently unvailable but has worked in the past:
Some of you may know that the KSA is currently undergoing a forensic audit by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) and as such, you may be asking why we are meeting with Tompkins, Wozny, Miller & Co. (Wozny). Well, PWC is handling a forensic audit, but a forensic audit is a very different animal from the regular audit that Wozny is performing. Specifically (and correct me if I'm wrong):
the period of time covered is different. The forensic audit is covering a period of time spanning from late April 2005 until October 31, 2006. The regular audit is only concerned with activities that occurred from January 1, 2006 until December 31, 2006. what each audit looks for is different. The forensic audit is more global and looks at issues of fraud and maladministration. A regular audit is a test of how sound an organization's financial controls are and ensures that an organization's financial statements are based on proper accounting practices and record-keeping.
The KSA is currently working on developing financial statements documenting what happened in 2006. It has been a difficult task as the former administration kept very poor financial records. For example, our financial administrator, with the help of a few 4th year Kwantlen accounting students the KSA hired, is having to re-create our general ledger for 2006. The general ledger is usually kept up to date on a daily and weekly basis and is a complete record of the transactions. Supporting documentation such as meeting minutes or approved budgets go alongside the ledger as well as receipts, expense reports, etc. A lot of this was not done by the former administration and as such; we have to closely examine what records are on hand, and compare that to banking information obtained from the KSA's bankers at CIBC.
So it's a lot of work – but it is being done and soon it will be complete. And then we hope to invite Tompkins, Wozny, Miller & Co. to come and examine our work and the financial statements we develop to produce our audited financial statements and post-audit memorandum.
For more information on how badly the KSA was being run under the former administration, refer to the post-audit memorandum that was issued for 2005:
http://www.steveleenow.net/kwantlen/cbrppdocs/financialstatements/2005/2005postauditmemo.pdf
You can also find complete audit documents spanning back to 1994 on my website:
http://www.steveleenow.net/kwantlen/cbrppdocs/financialstatements/index.htm
Eventually these documents will also be available in a similar format on the KSA’s website.
Our deadline to finish both the forensic audit and the regular audit is mid-March.
If you have any questions about the auditing process – feel free to comment here in the forum, or come see our Financial Administrator Rolando Navarro or myself during our office hours. Also, the Finance Committee that meets regularly discusses these issues – and all meetings are open to the Kwantlen community.
Cheers,
- Steve