February 9, 2022. The Sault Tribe Board of Directors requested and voted on approval of an audit for Sault Tribe Inc. in previous board meetings. At that time the CFO and the Administrative Staff went to work using man hours which we paid for to fulfill that resolution's order by issuing a Request for a Proposal and interviewing accounting firms qualified to perform the forensic audit ordered in the resolution.
During the February 7, 2023 Board Meeting some of the same Board Members that voted for this resolution refused to approve funding to pay for the Sault Tribe Inc Audit. While some Board Members did not want an audit to start with others used the excuse that two of the twelve Board Members attend the Sault Tribe Inc. Board Meetings on occasion. They therefore believe they know what is going on at Sault Tribe Inc. Their belief when voting not to fund the Sault Tribe Inc. Audit was that we can trust the Tribal Board to be the "Auditors" instead of paying for an audit. This may have passed as acceptable behavior if they did not mention in passing that they are already paying to audit DJ Hoffman.
Our question is if they only want to pay for two out of the three audits the board ordered why did the audit for Sault Tribe Inc. not take precedent over the audit of DJ Hoffman?
While we have no knowledge of any of DJ Hoffman's actions, we do know that he loved working for our tribe, that he worked diligently for the tribe and to spend our resources to audit him may result in deterring others from being willing to serve on the Tribal Board.
As a point of FACT all Federally Recognized American Indian Tribes already pay to conduct audits as a requirement to receive Federal Funds. The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians passed our last required audit with flying colors which most likely would have included auditing all Staff and Board Member Expense Reports. It does not appear the same can be said for Sault Tribe Incorporated. We are in fact on the hook for any business losses and have no proof that these folks are on track to make us profits. We do know they are taking advantage of our rights to obtain Federal 8A Contracts and are staffed with folks that are paid much more than others working for our tribe therefore reducing our Return on Investment. These salaries paid to the executives provide no needed motivation to make our Tribal Members any profits. They get paid no matter what.
Do these executives earn bonuses?
What is the plan to share profits with our members?
We asked to see the financial documents for Sault Tribe Inc. several times and as of today they have not been provided which is a violation of Article III of the By-Laws of the Constitution of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
What are they hiding? Maybe nothing, but if so why all the secrets? Shareholders of any private or public corporation would not just take the word of someone whose only role in the business is that they can attend a board meeting as fact when their money is at risk. Why should the Tribal Members aka Stakeholders of Sault Tribe Incorporated not be provided the same courtesy? Sault Tribe Inc.
All of the above explains in part why some of our Tribal Members are organizing a recall petition.
Note - We do not mention Board Members Names because the meetings poor audio quality and the room set is such that you can never be absolutely sure of who is voting or speaking. The Voting Records and Resolutions are posted but the posting time is often delayed.
