Sanctions filed against 2 chapters

By John Christian Hopkins
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — The Budget & Finance Committee imposed sanctions against the Bodaway-Gap and Steamboat chapters for failing to implement their corrective action plans, while approving a CAP for the Ramah Chapter.

Bodaway-Gap
Bodaway-Gap officials and Marisa Greerson, of the Local Governance Support Center, requested a 90-day extension before sanctions were imposed and B & F seemed to be leading that way when the meeting turned into a sometime-contentious legal debate.

"Most findings have been corrected, it doesn't make sense for you to sanction us today," said Delegate Evelyn Acothley.

The chapter has made tremendous progress, and LGSC believes that with a 90-day extension all deficiencies will be corrected, Greerson said.

B & F Vice Chairman Leonard Chee was concerned about the timeline the chapter had agreed to a CAP three years ago. All corrections should have been made, he suggested.

The auditor general's office audited Bodaway-Gap in 2002 and did a follow-up review in 2005, Greerson said. Now, because of a few minor unresolved issues, the auditor general is recommending sanctions, Greerson said.

"It was like the boy who cried wolf," Greerson said. "The auditor general cried wolf so often that people didn't think they'd ever come back. Maybe they need to be sanctioned? Why aren't they doing their job?"

The bottom line is that Bodaway-Gap had ample time to implement its CAP and failed to do so, said Acting Auditor General Elizabeth Begay. The chapter must be held by the standards of the law, Begay said.

"Not everyone follows the law," suggested committee member Jonathan Nez. He said that under the law, the auditor general is supposed to do a follow-up review in 12 months not three years.

It's odd that the auditor general would now be a stickler for timelines when it ignored its own responsibilities, Nez added.

The auditor general's office did miss the 12-month deadline but that doesn't absolve the chapter of failing to make the corrections, said B & F member Lorenzo Curley.

Allow an extra 90 days and then, if the CAP isn't done, impose sanctions, Greerson said.

"The auditor general is making it hard for good chapters," Greerson said.

Looking like B & F would grant the extension, Chairman LoRenzo C. Bates asked Chief Legislative Counsel Ray Etsitty for his opinion.

"The auditor general is correct," Etsitty said. "The committee has to impose sanctions."

The reason is that the CAP was already approved and therefore in effect Etsitty said. Regardless of how long the auditor general's office took to do a review, the terms of the CAP were not met by the chapter, he explained.

It doesn't matter what the chapter says it's doing now the review was for things it was supposed to do by a specific time, Etsitty said.

"You say you're doing it now; well, Paris Hilton says she's doing better now, too," Etsitty said.

Steamboat
Many of the problems at Steamboat are due to a restraining order the chapter manager has against him, said Chapter President Jack Whitehorse Jr. The restraining order makes it difficult for him to get information and present it to the community, Whitehorse said.

He has to search for information on the Internet now, he said.

"If there is any way to address the restraining order, things might run better," Whitehorse said.

Like Bodaway-Gap, Steamboat officials wanted a 90-day extension, Curley reported. However, the chapter manager said things are being done the same way they were before Steamboat became certified, Curley said. Whatever problems existed before, are still there, he explained.

"I believe the facts support this legislation for sanctions," Curley said.

Steamboat Chapter was certified in May 2003 and, by law, must operate under the Five Management System, Begay said. However, a review conducted last December found that the FMS was still not in operation, she said.

"There is a clear breakdown of the system," Begay said.

Among Steamboat's problems were a communication breakdown, haphazard financial records and lack of inventory control, said Alfreida Lee, who was lead auditor for the Steamboat review.

"The system is not operating effectively," Lee said.

The legislation calls for funding to be withheld from the chapter beginning in Fiscal Year 2008, said Curley, who sponsored the measure. The chapter would still receive money, but could only spend it by getting approval from the controller, Curley said.

"They'd have the money, but they wouldn't have the checkbook," Curley said.

If the deficiencies were corrected by the beginning of Fiscal Year 2008 which begins Oct. 1 then no funds would be withheld, Begay explained.

The chapter has made a lot of improvement, Steamboat Vice President Wallace Tsosie said. But because there can only be limited contact between the chapter president and manager, it makes things more difficult, Tsosie explained.

"Why the heck do you want to be certified when your chapter officials can't even get along with each other?" Chee asked.

Many of the problems seem to be remnants from the past, said B & F member Nelson Begaye.

"The new officers should be able to look to the future and not back at the past," Begaye suggested.

Ramah
The problems confronting the Ramah Chapter include financial reporting, questionable use of housing funds and not using funds for intended purposes, Elizabeth Begay said.

An 18-month audit of Ramah's records found no financial report to community members during that span, said Helen Brown, lead auditor for this case. Part of the problem has been due to staff turnover, Brown said. Ramah has had four controllers over the past five years, she noted.

Ramah is also unique among chapters by having a separation of funds from the Navajo Nation and federal governments, Brown said.

In most chapters, the chapter services coordinator is generally regarded to be the chapter manager but that is not the case at Ramah, Brown said. That results in two accounting systems in use, she said.

"Neither the CSC or controller are considered to be the chapter manager," Brown said.

Housing projects were done in a haphazard way, she said. Requests for housing assistance are made during chapter meetings with no written resolution or supporting documentation, Brown said.

There is no housing committee within the chapter to rank projects resulting in an inequitable system, she said.

On top of that, unskilled local labor is used for housing projects, and some of the dwellings do not meet professional standards and at least one was deemed uninhabitable, Brown explained.

The chapter is about 60 percent through the needed corrections, said Ramah Chapter Vice President Martha Garcia.

It's confusing for a chapter to have a dual accounting systems, B & F's Ralph Bennett said. The chapter seems serious about wanting to gain certification, and that process should be sped up, Bennett said.

John Christian Hopkins can be reached at hopkins1960@hotmail.com or by calling 505-371-5443.