As Oneida Eye has reported, CFO Larry Barton has more than once expressed his concerns about how dissolving Oneida Seven Generations Corporation could affect the Oneida Tribe’s credit rating.
However, a copy of the McGladrey & Pullen financial audit & analysis of dissolving OSGC is now available for GTC members to view in Tribal Secretary Patty Hoeft’s office and Oneida Eye had a chance to review it on Wednesday December 11, 2013.
According to page 63 of the the audit & analysis, regarding the Tribe’s Standard & Poor credit rating:
With or without OSGC, estimated rating as of September 30, 2013: A-
Implied credit rating: A-
OSGC standalone implied credit rating: BBB+
According to page 68, regarding the impact of dissolving OSGC on the Tribe’s credit rating:
From a quantitative perspective, as of September 30, 2013 the proposed dissolution of OSGC into the Tribe has minimal impact on the Tribe from a creditworthiness perspective. The Tribe would maintain its ability to meet financial commitments.
Therefore it seems the impact that CFO Barton has stated was his major concern is negligible according to the McGladrey & Pullen audit report.
Instead, the Oneida Tribe needs to seriously consider how OSGC’s business model of marketing toxic incinerators and business method of misrepresenting the facts, as well as the Business Committee’s unwillingness to hold OSGC accountable for their actions, has and will continue to harm the Tribe’s reputation if General Tribal Council does not dissolve OSGC and insist that the Tribe make amends with the City of Green Bay for the unjustified lawsuit & appeal that OSGC brought against the city using money the BC gave OSGC from the Tribe’s General Fund.
Why would area residents want to be customers of Tribal businesses – including the recently announced casino restaurants – if they know that their tax dollars were wasted having to defend Green Bay’s right to expect honesty & integrity from Tribally-chartered corporations?
Speaking of audits, Oneida Eye maintains that dissolving OSGC is just a beginning when it comes to establishing meaningful accountability throughout the entire Oneida Tribal organization and that General Tribal Council owes it to itself to listen to this six-and-half minute MP3 of comments by Business Committee member Vince DelaRosa at the November 20, 2013 Legislative Operating Committee Meeting regarding the problems with the Tribal Audit Committee which have resulted in the Tribe “slowly spiraling out of control.” DelaRosa outlines the need for the Audit Committe’s independence from the BC, as well as the need for meaningful accountability – including for Tribal corporations – when people’s misconduct or negligence negatively impacts the Tribe.
Council member DelaRosa also points out that the Tribe failed to establish a whistleblower’s law this year to protect conscientious Tribal members and employees who report mismanagement or misconduct and he says this:
We are in bad shape when it comes to audit work. We do as best we can as an Audit Committee, but if you knew, if you only knew what was going on underneath the surface here, as Tribal members you would be horrified. I’m promising you that.
Vince DelaRosa also states:
[T]he Audit Committee should be able to report to General Tribal Council. At some point when this all blows up we’re going to wonder what happened, and then the audits will show certain things year after year, seven years – seven years – in some cases of people just failing to respond to audit work, and they’re still employed here! Or we show up on audit sites and tons of paperwork is missing. Do we find this acceptable as Tribal members?
Vince says this about the lack of accountability and enforcement:
Right now, with the lack of control environments, we believe – based on the Candela advisory – y’know, it could be $20-to-40 million that is loose, not tied down properly. But we go to audit and there’s paperwork missing, we can never prove a case, can’t take anyone to trial, can’t prosecute anyone, and then this just goes on and on and on.
Council member David ‘Fleet’ Jordan summed it up another way:
Such a lack of ethics in this entire organization.
Reestablishing the Oneida Tribe’s credibility – internally and to the world – requires GTC to make hard choices and to continue to demand information from Tribal government and management in order to make informed decisions and assess organizational & personal liabilities, and act accordingly in self-defense by taking necessary steps to establish meaningful accountbility.
