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Burlington? There are no accounting firms in Hamilton. Nice to keep Hamilton Taxpayer money in the city.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tom!
It takes a millisecond to create a PDF from an on-line document and or a scanned file. Was the document presented and accepted by the Board? If so it is now property of the Waterfront Trust. Release it today. Is Councillor Jackson saying that the Accounting Firm that they hired ignoring his calls on behalf of the taxpayers of the City of Hamilton?
ReplyDeleteSurely he must be telling the truth because if I were the rep in Burlington, I would not be happy to have my (or the firms) reputation tarnished. Waiting over 2 weeks to make a pdf available? Sounds like someone is sitting on it somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't The Hamiltonian contact Delloite and find out what's up?
DeleteI am getting peeved at all the games here. I'm not stupid. Something isn't right. And why did Chad Collins step down from the trust thing so abruptly when he did? Why won't they answer the questions? Why is it taking so long to release the financials? How could we have lost 1/2 million or so last year? What the heck is going on and why don't we have a call for a forensic audit???????????????????
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the call for a forensic audit click on the link on the side bar of the Hamiltonian site that says "Delegation formed on the Hamilton Waterfront Trust"
ReplyDeleteI'm getting a copy hand delivered to my house, thanks to a HWT member, as soon as it's available. I figure by the end of the week tops. I will be sitting out on the back-deck, while I peruse the documents, life is good.
ReplyDeleteAssuming both clrs. Jackson and Farr both had the document in hand at the board meeting, and given the weeks and weeks of news/10 questions pertaining to the HWT, and given that either Jackson or Farr could have, at or immediately after the Board meeting, easily made an electronic copy, I believe that clr. Jackson is certainly not helping citizens in any way and is now outing Deloitte Touche as a culprit. The more Jackson speaks on the HWT, the dirtier the waters get.
ReplyDeleteTeresa, out of curiosity, would you be kind enough to include clr. Farr's response?
Hamiltonian,Thank you for your ongoing interest in the HWT. Either Tom, or myself will be certain to send you an electronic copy as soon as it becomes available.Jay
DeleteTH, when I first read Clr. Farr's reply I didn't get who Tom and Jay were; the informality is inappropriate and belittles the seriousness of the whole WHT unfolding thus far.
DeleteThanks for sending; 'tis plain as day why you didn't include (and most kind of you towards Clr. Far) but am glad to have read it. Further proof that Tom and Jay have no intention at all of helping citizens understand the roots of HWT.
I would not expect that the HWT financials will show detailed accounting of what and where answers that most of us are looking for. A smoking gun we will not see unless a forensic audit is done.
ReplyDeleteWow, MAW you have just managed to capture the essence of small town politics... where cronyism, insider dealings and its 'primitive buddy system' have pretty much destroyed its economy and national reputation.
ReplyDeleteAnd the guys at 'Urbanicity magazine' wonder why the city of Hamilton is not mentioned on Maps!!
So, the HWT board I am presuming is also reading your above statement , and they are ok with this method of releasing public information - that has been asked for repeatedly both here and at the Bay Observer???
You guys seriously need to get your collective heads checked. You are actually gloating here!! What exactly is it that you are hoping to acheive with such a remark? Have people know that you have some special insider connections? or that in spite of the consistent exposure of the HWT Board practices here, it is still hell bent on thumbing its nose at the people of Hamilton?
Both you and the HWT board and especially Tom Jackson and Chad Collins need to read this article from the New York Times:
Accounting Board Criticizes Deloitte’s Auditing System - By Floyd Norris, October 17, 2011
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/business/accounting-board-criticizes-deloittes-auditing-system.html?_r=2
Here is how this article starts:
"In an unprecedented rebuke to a major accounting firm, the group that oversees the industry released a report criticizing Deloitte & Touche, saying that it lacked an adequate system of quality control in its audits.
In a report released Monday, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board chastised a Deloitte culture that it said placed too much faith in officials of the companies being audited.
“In too many instances,” the report stated, inspectors from the board “observed that the engagements team’s support for significant areas of the audit consisted of management’s views or the results of inquiries of management.”
Maybe when you get you copy of this audited public document hand delivered to your house as a special favour -- you may want to reflect on how this city has got the national reputation that it has managed to get.
From the above NYT article:
ReplyDelete"The most recent report on Deloitte, released in 2010, cited problems with 15 audits, including some where it said the audit firm had failed to do work needed to assess whether management assertions were correct."
http://pcaobus.org/Inspections/Reports/Documents/2010_Deloitte_Touche_LLP.pdf
In light of this, below is my question to Tom Jackson, Jason Farr and Chad Collins:
As current and past board members of the HWT, do you trust the audited report of HWT by this firm?
I think that the question could be framed this way in light of the NY Times article; Did the firm produce audited statements that were unduly influenced by the requesting firm, in this case The Waterfront Trust?
ReplyDeleteHoly smokes Mahesh, I had no idea I was a crony for some kind of political buddy system here in Hamilton. Now I know why you have an axe to grind, respecting Hamilton politics. As I have said from the start, an independent forensic audit should be done by a company other than the ones already involved, or involved in the past. the HWT is a registered charity that need drastic improvement in how they raise funds, instead of getting it automatically from property taxpayers. What other charity automatically gets bailed out by the city? Good Shepherd? sorry, no go. Rich property developer looking for a $9 million dollar loan to build a Hotel? Step right up brother, we got the loot. When charities spend more than they raise how long can they last? I'm surprised the HWT lasted this long given the annual losses. I was just looking at the stats from the last municipal election, Farr won with just over 1,400 votes. Most Trustee's clock four times as many votes. Funny how democracy works, 34,000 electors in Farr's ward. Most of them stayed home, apparently. The real old boys club are the developers, three generations deep. Politicians come and go, these guys live here, and it shows.
ReplyDeletelodge a complaint with the Charities Directorate
ReplyDeleteAlready did. It will take a few months apparently
DeleteThe Hamilton Waterfront Trust has had its day. I'm not sure why it continues to exist in that form. It seems like there are many people who have a lot of explaining to do as to how it has been operating.
ReplyDeleteSorce