Pequis treatment centre closed.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Peguis-treatment-centre-closed-42317602.html

not sure why it is closed... the story related details from last year when the director was suspended for financial mismanagement...so unless there is someone else ripping them off now...the board seems to have taken care of the problem and moved on., why close the doors?

Regrettably I'm not surprised. I'm certain the current status has everything to do with the original allegations against the manager.

It constantly amazes me that facilities with such huge budgets aren't audited annually. And by a fully independent firm.

The manager seems to indicate the problems were caused by others. This is again a lack of accountability mindset that seems to permeate these groups. This must end if they wish to regain trust from society.

oh I totally agree that the former director was using funds completely incorrectly and that many employees were fine with doing it too... but hasn't the current board shown it is on the right track by removing her?

DeanK taught me how to cut and putt! Blame him!
Why would anyone be concerned that this treatment center was spending $1,000,000 per year?

"An alcohol treatment centre on the Peguis reserve has been shut pending a Health Canada investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement.
Health Canada spokesman Stéphane Shank confirmed Wednesday that the Peguis Al-Care Treatment Centre shut its doors April 1. It will stay closed until July 31 while a review is conducted.
"This is not an audit but a review of operations to ensure that the program is in line with the overall goals and objectives for programs of this nature that are operated across Canada," Shank said. "This will be a comprehensive review."
According to documents obtained by the Free Press, the allegations date back almost a year.
In the spring of 2008, the treatment centre’s board suspended director Maxine Stevenson while it looked into allegations against her. The allegations, listed in a May 21 letter to Stevenson, included falsifying employee work records, overpaying employees and then receiving money from the employees in return. The board also alleged that Stevenson used and permitted the centre’s van to be used for personal trips, and that she improperly purchased items at the Peguis Home Hardware and the Peguis Shop Easy for personal use and allowed some staff to do the same.
In a letter responding to the allegations, Stevenson said staff often came to her saying they’d run out of groceries and she occasionally gave staff extra unused hours to top up their paycheques.
"I realize that this is a poor way to subsidize them for salary increases which they greatly deserved, but it was a help to them," Stevenson wrote.
She also noted that she allowed staff extra paid leave when they had used up all their sick days but had suffered a death in the family.
Stevenson did not address the allegations that she received money from salary overpayments or that she had used centre funds to shop at band stores. She also didn’t directly address allegations that she improperly used the treatment centre’s van.
But she did say she gave gas slips to employees who used their own vehicles and that some employees abused the privilege, filling up gas cans before they went on camping trips. Stevenson said she gassed up her vehicle occasionally because she used it often to take clients to appointments.
She said that the allegations stem from "a great resentment" the board holds against her. She said some of the five board members are paid up to $600 a month. The board’s salaries total $42,000 a year, money she says that could better go toward staff salaries.
"If they were not taking badly needed funds from Al-Care, this should never have happened," Stevenson wrote. "The board of directors did not do a very good job at being fair and finding out the whole story. The witch hunt they were on made them judgmental, acting very unprofessionally in their dealings with this matter, listening to only one side of the story."
A source said the board called in Health Canada following their own investigation. Some in the community do not expect the Peguis treatment centre to reopen.
Chief Glenn Hudson was on holidays and didn’t return several calls to his home or mobile phone. Repeated calls to several band councillors also went unanswered. Maxine Stevenson could also not be located.
The centre has been open for at least 20 years. Since 2001, the Al-Care centre has received $5.87 million in federal funding, including $920,776 last year.
Sources on the reserve said the centre’s 20 beds are usually full and that it often caters to people from other nearby reserves."

So the 20 bed care facility is shut down. That seems to work out pretty good for the sick and needy aboriginals!
Oversight for how to run anything seems to suck for some things aimed at the aboriginals! Is this done on purpose?

Hmmm. Stevenson, why does that name sound familiar around Peguis??

Tax evasion added to former federal bureaucrat's list of convictions
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Former-federal-bureaucrat-convicted-of-tax-evasion-in--42337362.html
What does a 2 year conditional sentence mean? No jail time?
So he stole over a million dollars and no jail time?
"Tough on aboriginals" - wow pretty lenient! Anyone know why ? Why bother spending a million dollars on investigating, and paying for his/her lawyers? RCMP probably went out and Tasered 20 manitobans after this court case!

Conditional sentence,s are fairly normal now , if you break the conditions you go to jail. Probably something along the line of do not leave the reserve or stay away from the bar or out of contact with . Lots of whites get them too, sign of no room at the jail . .

Build more jails.

Exactly.

It is time we stopped NOT putting criminals in jail because there isn't enough room.

Gee, you' have thunk that the feds would have been a little more diligent after the Virginia Fontaine fiasco at Sagkeeng. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I'm going to work for the government.

Perhaps the INAC overseers are drunken alcoholics.

Perhaps it is time we put the politicians in jail.

And on a related matter...

First Nations chief charged for stealing $16,000 from health group

CBC News

The chief of a Manitoba First Nation has been charged with theft and fraud related to money stolen from an aboriginal health group.

David Traverse, chief of Kinonjeoshtegon (Jackhead) First Nation, 45, has been charged with theft over $5,000, fraud over $5,000, and breach of trust by a public official. He was served on Tuesday with a summons to appear in a Winnipeg court on May 22.

The charges are related to $16,000 stolen from Anishinaabe Mino-Ayaawin Inc. between Sept. 8 and Oct. 30, 2000.

Kinonjeoshtegon First Nation is located about 170 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

Traverse is the second person to be charged in connection with the RCMP investigation into Anishinaabe Mino-Ayaawin Inc. It was prompted by a complaint from Health Canada, say RCMP.

Daryl Cote, 53, the former CEO of Anishinaabe Mino-Ayaawin Inc. and former co-manager of Dauphin River First Nation, was charged in early February.

The charges against the Winnipeg man are connected to $717,000 stolen from the health group between Oct. 1, 1999, and March 31, 2004. He is also charged in relation to a further $310,150 stolen from the Dauphin River First Nation between Feb. 8, 2001, and Feb. 28, 2004.

Anishinaabe Mino-Ayaawin Inc. is an organization that delivers and monitors health programs and services to the Interlake Reserve Tribal Council (IRTC) members.

The investigation by the RCMP Winnipeg commercial crime unit is ongoing, although no further charges are expected, the RCMP said in a news release Wednesday.

yeah thats already posted in another discussion on here.

You sure it is the very same one?

yup
https://kwdc.forumotion.com/provincial-f12/more-charges-in-the-ama-scandal-t1971.htm

Ummm, oops?

Yes it is good to see this send the message to all that it is caught and it is not okay .

in USA the Chiefs who steal get sent away to jail
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/08/former_wampanoag_leader_sentenced/

USA and Canada took very different approaches to the native peoples.

LOOK AT THIS GUY!! HE LOOKS INNOCENT TO ME!
CHECK OUT HIS GREY HAIR, AND A SUIT!!


Former Wapanoag leader sentenced


Marshall faces jail for embezzlement, illegal payments

Glenn A. Marshall, who must report to federal prison on June 8, was sentenced to nearly three and a half years. (Elise Amendola/Associated Press)

By Jonathan Saltzman

Glenn A. Marshall, the former Mashpee Wampanoag tribal chairman, was sentenced yesterday to nearly three and a half years in federal prison for embezzling about $380,000 in tribal money and steering about $60,000 in illegal campaign contributions to politicians with the help of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
AND HE SAID HE WAS SORRY!!
I apologize to my people, my family, my friends, and the court," he said in a packed courtroom.
Spectators included several tribe members who said they tried to blow the whistle on him and were temporarily kicked out of the tribe.

But he resigned in August 2007 after acknowledging a 1981 rape conviction and lying to Congress about his military record.