"Draft says Council needs more transparency"

by Lynda Powless - Editor

A move by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada to make band councils more accountable had a rough ride at last Tuesday's band council meeting.

After preparing a draft report of the band's accountability and management structures, the policy analyst concluded...the policies were in "need of a lot of work."

Director of Operations, Cynthia Jamieson told council the draft is ready, but she wasn't certain if council wanted it forwarded to INAC.

INAC had demanded the accountability analysis be made available by Dec. 31 or would stop all third quarter funding to councils who failed to provide the information. The funding provides for everything from salaries to programs.

Earlier this year council had refused to provide the information to INAC that included an accounting for band councillors' honorariums. Six Nations Band Council refused to provide the information along with band councils from across the country.

However, when INAC refused to provide funding without the information councils began sending it in.

As part of INAC's move to make band councils more accountable they are demanding councils provide information on what policies it has in place, accountability structures and where the public can turn for redress if they do not like the outcome of a council decision.

But Jamieson said the draft showed, "for example conflict-of-interest guidelines don't exist for band council. If there was a breach we don't have anything in place to tell us, if there is a breach, what would be done."

"None of these things are adressed. They're just some what addressed in the council's code of ethics."

Councillor Dave Green disagreed. "I think there is. You just won't get back in next time," he said referring to the elections.

She said the issue of confidentiality of information is not addressed. "Sometimes it's denied in practice," she said.

Said she a band employee told her directly in comments from departments that while confidentiality of information is expected, "it is sometimes denied in practice."

Jamieson said bylaws may exist but there are problems with enforcement and in producing the bylaw.

Band Council Chief Wellington Staats said he wasn't comfortable with the form the assessment was taking. "We do have some bylaws and there will always be more coming. This says we don't have an y."

Jamieson said the work plan is a rough draft "and yes council has implemented some bylaws. But we are having trouble producing them." Instead, she suggested council send the draft in.

"We're probably in a lot better shape than a lot of other communities. We can make it very clear this in rough and then go after INAC for funding to re-organize into categories and produce policies.

She said hiring an analysis will help the administration get a better handle on what needs to be done. "We can look, for example at all the band's capital assets and see what needs to be done and look at the overall picture rather than each department just looking at what it services. We can get a better sense of it all."

She said departments have nothing in writing to tell them what needs to be done in a variety of incidents. "They have a sense of what is done, a history of what they have done in the past but nothing in writing that says, this is how we handle that."

Councillor Stephen Bomberry agreed saying public works is at a stage where it should have its own tendering policy. "We use what ever the engineer uses gut we should have our own."

But Staats said he bad problems with sending a document to INAC "that says we have no bylaws. I don't have a problem with this as a management tool but I do have a problem with sending it to INAC with so many blanks. I know how DIA people are and I have a difficulty with letting them look at this when it isn't really finished."

He said the draft "leaves more questions than answers."

But Jamieson said the gaps should be addressed. "We should simply say, yes, we do have these gaps and they need to be addressed. We need to get funding to hire someone to do this."

Council agreed to send the draft to INAC. The draft indicates: Conflict of Interest Guidelines do not exist but councillors have a Code of Ethics.

There is no disclosure and no redress policies to deal with breaches.

There are no agencies to oversee governance functions at Six Nations or guidelines for adoption of boards or committees.

The draft indicates there is no disclosure or redress or transparency for bylaws administering new programs, breaches of policy or delegation of authority.

It says programs including human resources to have employment and hiring policies and disclosure does exists because council allows employees to access it if they do not agree with decisions but no such access by community members and there is redress in the form of a right to appeal by employees.

It says in housing disclosure is maintained through pamphlets being provided but there is no redress for decisions made.

Economic development allows for disclosure if asked but there is no redress and social development has no formal documentation but access to policies is available upon request and redress does exist but varies according to the program.

There is transparency for financial affairs except in the areas of expenditures of band moneys (capital revenue) borrowing of money and loans, debt management and annual expenditures planning or budgeting there is no -­ disclosure and no redress.

While some capital assets do exists and are documented by INAC there is no comprehensive plan for the community, no disclosure and no redress for community members.