Message from the Beausoleil First Nation Chief
In this update I want to address the lead administrative position that has been vacant within our First Nation for almost 18 months. It began in May of 2007 when our Director of Finance and Administration left due to illness. Believing it to be a short term illness, the existing staff were assigned the additional duties of the absent Director. Within months and afer realizing the absence of the Director was going to be long term we requested the assistance of the Ogemawahj Tribal Council to act in a co-management role specifically for financial management and control. During that 18 month period of time some fundamental changes were implemented to try to cut the workload of the remaining staff and improve our procedures.These were trying and extremely stressful times during which many different options were attempted such as employing part time and short term contract positions, assigning additional duties to existing staff, and acquiring professional services and consultants. The options attempted proved to be temporary in almost eery case and the financial management and administrative duties kept falling back onto a couple of key staff, the Tribal Council financial advisor, and council.
Now for some good news. Council has been able to resolve the outstanding issue concerning the previous Director of Finance and Administration and can now seek a permanent solution. An employment posting for the position of Band Administrator has been approved and circulated publicly. An additional position to manage the financial operations is under development and will be posted soon.
Just this week Council has reviewed the draft audited financial statements and they will be ready for approval early next week. Although we operated in a deficit this year the audit shows that we are in a strong financial position as a First Nation. A community presentation will be arranged in the very near future.
There is much work ahead of us as we rebuild our administrative department and imporve the operations of our organization. A special thanks goes to the Ogemawahj Tribal Council, particularly Mark Dube, Council, and the dedicated staff of the Beausoleil First Nation who continued to deliver important services to our people in periods of uncertainty and high stress.
Chi-miigwetch
Chief Rodney Monague Jr.
This article comes from NationTalk:
https://nationtalk.ca
The permalink for this story is:
https://nationtalk.ca/story/message-from-the-beausoleil-first-nation-chief
Comments are closed.