Strathroy-Caradoc police investigate missing funds at two Middlesex farm groups

by SUSAN MANN

Strathroy-Caradoc police are investigating an alleged theft of an estimated $15,000 from the Middlesex 4-H Association and an undisclosed amount from the Middlesex Federation of Agriculture.

Const. Steve Pommer, community and media relations officer with the Strathroy-Caradoc Police Service based in Strathroy (located halfway between Sarnia and London), says the matter they’re investigating involves a former employee of the Middlesex Federation of Agriculture. He declined to name the person. No charges have been laid.

The police service issued a press release March 1 saying they were investigating a fraud complaint involving “an allegation of misappropriation of funds.”

Pommer says police investigators are working with the federation “and are in the preliminary stages of their investigation.”

The Ontario 4-H Association also issued a press release March 1 about the matter. Wraychel Horne, executive director, says they issued their release the same day the Strathroy police released their public statement.

“We wanted to show we were in support of that investigation,” she says.

Financial irregularities found
4-H Ontario’s financial department first detected financial irregularities in early 2012. The group launched an internal investigation and then referred the matter to local police. Horne says there wasn’t a review process by 4-H Ontario in place at the time but there was an anomaly detected in how financial transitions were taking place between the Middlesex association and the provincial office.

Horne says a person who worked for the Middlesex Federation also handled the books for the Middlesex 4-H Association. Middlesex Federation president Ed Lee says the two groups share an office in Mount Brydges. At the time, there was one employee.

He says the Federation noticed something wasn’t right around the same time the 4-H financial department detected irregular accounting.

“We contacted the police and we were instructed we had to have an accountant do a review of everything before they could continue in their investigation,” Lee says, noting they’ve had an accountant examine all of the records, including Canada Revenue, bank deposits and investments. That report has been forwarded to the police.

The accountant’s examination of the records took a year and the police have had the report for a month.

Vigilance is key
Lee says the organization has learned the importance of having bank statements presented at least every month at meetings or even once every two months and recommends the practice to other organizations. “You need to be able to compare them with your cheques that have been written.”

Lee says he couldn’t discuss how the alleged fund misappropriation occurred because of the ongoing police investigation. He also declined to say how much money was allegedly taken from the Federation. The money loss came from memberships.

“We apologize to our members but we’re doing our best to work back through it,” he says. The shortfall caused short-term difficulties for the Federation. “We were a little cramped when we first found out but with the stable funding we were okay. 4-H has had to do more fundraising to make up the shortfall.”

He also notes the Federation has insurance in place and “as this works through we’re expecting to benefit from that.”

Horne says the Middlesex 4-H Association money loss came mainly from membership fees. She says she can’t comment on if the Middlesex Association faced hardship because of the loss.

Horne says they’re now putting their faith in the investigative process and waiting “for the legal system to determine an outcome.”

She says they’re continuing to support the Middlesex 4-H Association “through this difficult time.” In addition, they “continue to work to strengthen our policies and practices in regards to accounting at the association level and have thoroughly reviewed those in light of the situation.”

Herb Pierce, president of the Middlesex 4-H, says the situation was a learning curve for them. “We did fundraising and we carried on.”

The organization has since reorganized and “we’ve split things up. There are more stages to go through for payments and to get at bank accounts,” he says.

4-H to discuss policies and procedures
The 4-H Association treasurers will be discussing policies and procedures for association reporting at the 4-H annual meeting March 23 at the Waterloo Inn. The provincial board’s finance committee is helping to develop those policies.

There are 54 local 4-H associations across Ontario.

4-H Ontario is the provincial umbrella group that supports the local associations of volunteers. Horne says their role is to provide “financial security, screening for volunteers, training, legal assistance for members, and provincial programs for 4-H members. “There is a membership fee component that local associations collect and pay to the province for the oversight of those programming components and that’s how there’s a financial relationship between local associations of volunteers and the staff of the provincial body,” she says.

As for the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, president Mark Wales says they’re monitoring the situation. “We are taking careful notice of what’s occurred. It’s an unfortunate incident.”

Wales adds it’s now up to the legal system to deal with it. BF