CORNER BROOK, N.L. — The executive of the Corner Brook Minor Hockey Association still won’t divulge the magnitude of the issues with its finances, but president Jackie Simms says there are a couple of good reasons for that.
Firstly, there is a police investigation file opened on the irregularities with the association’s books and Simms said the executive does not want to jeopardize that in any way.
Secondly, the executive doesn’t really know for sure the extent of the troubles.
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Simms, along with association vie-president Matt Rogers, agreed to do their first interview Tuesday about the problems that became public knowledge last month.
They said there is not a lot of detail they can talk about just yet.
“We won’t be able to tell you numbers or where we’re to or what went wrong, if anything went wrong, until the audit is done,” said Simms.
The audit she referenced is an internal audit being conducted by a three-person team led by Bruce Keating. Initially, it was expected the team would complete the audit in seven to 10 days, but Simms said Keating has indicated it will actually take longer.
Simms was not sure how much longer it would be.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary is regularly updated on the audit’s progress and will be provided with the results to determine if there was anything criminal involved.
“We’re not accusing anybody,” emphasized Simms. “There’s lots of speculation and rumours out there, but we can’t take our time trying to calm some of the speculation and rumours. We don’t know until we see how much money is left coming in and how much money is left going out. We have to have facts and facts only.”
Rogers said there is clearly something amiss about the finances, though. He said the association first noticed irregularities in early March.
“We followed up on it and realized it may be bigger than we realized and had to take more steps,” he said.
The rumour mill has churned out plenty of numbers, some as high as $200,000 or more. Rogers does not believe the amount at stake is that high.
The City of Corner Brook has already confirmed the association is behind on its ice time bill with the city’s civic centre. While that should be a hard number that can be pinned down, Simms refused to say how much that bill is or if the association owes money to any other entities.
“To me, that’s confidential and I’m not willing to release who we owe what to,” she said.
Mayor Jim Parsons had said the association’s monthly bill with the civic centre typically runs between $20,000 and $25,000. Rogers said it’s actually more like $25,000 to $30,000, depending on the level of activity in a given month.
The internal audit, according to the executive, is essentially going to attempt to restructure how money was received and spent by the association since this past season began last fall.
Rogers said this will be a difficult and time-consuming undertaking.
“There is a lot of cash flow and a lot of cheques and they have to make sure they can account for everything,” he said. “It’s tedious work and, if your books weren’t kept as good as they could have been, it makes it all a little harder.”
Simms said Keating and his team have been spending a lot of their spare time, both during the day and late into the evenings, volunteering to work on the audit. Simms and Rogers are at the ready to answer any questions the audit committee or the police might have for the executive.
Simms said this experience has been a stressful one for everyone involved in minor hockey.
“To put your association under the (spotlight) is not comfortable for anybody,” she said. “This (audit) committee has volunteered their time and have gone above and beyond. They and all the executive of minor hockey are working very hard to get to the bottom of this.”
Simms did quell the rumour that the association has no money left at all. She said it does have an operating budget that will allow it to carry on with business as usual for the remainder of this season.
An arrangement has been worked out to pay off its outstanding civic centre bill. Once the audit is done, the association will once again meet with the city to discuss the results.
Simms and Rogers said the plan is to make sure it’s business as usual when the new Corner Brook Minor Hockey Association season starts in the fall.
