Hopi government finances in disarray
By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi' Bureau
KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz., Oct. 31, 2011
In addition, the tribe's finance department is understaffed, plagued by high employee turnover, too centralized and generally in "turmoil," a written report from the consulting company states.
Hopi Tribal Chairman Leroy Shingoitewa did not return a phone call by press time.
The tribe hired Henry & Horne LLP over the summer to evaluate the department and recommend changes, according to the report.
The accountants found a tribe three years behind on its annual audits (in defiance of federal regulations), employees complaining of missed paychecks and a procurement process that left some departments hanging for months.
Only 18 of the 23 full-time positions in the department were full, with three vacancies at upper management level, according to the report.
Junior staff lacked the education and experience to properly do their jobs without strong leadership.
The accountants blamed high turnover for many of the problems. According to the report, the Hopis have had 10 finance directors in the past 15 years, partly due to general disarray in the government.
Ivan Sydney was removed as chairman in 2006 after appearing intoxicated at a Winslow motel. Benjamin Nuvamsa, who won a special election to replace Sydney, was sworn in March 1, 2007, and resigned under pressure in December 2008 after continual conflicts with the council and the vice chairman, who also resigned.
The tribe was without leadership for nearly a year until Leroy Shingoitewa took office in December 2009. Last year, the Council fired long-time tribal treasurer Russell Mockta and hired a new finance director, Joseph Begay.
During the tumultuous years of 2007 and 2008, no audit was done and according to the consultants' report, the finances were in such disarray that it took until last year to catch up with those audits. Fiscal 2009 has yet to be audited.
To complicate matters, Begay instituted new payroll software that had some glitches. Employees who had direct deposit missed two paychecks and demanded the tribe pay their overdraft fees when their bills were automatically deducted from their bank accounts.
The consultants said the payroll chaos could have been avoided if the finance department had let the director of management information systems in on the decision and allowed her to train the entire tribal bureaucracy on it.
In addition, the tribe is not reconciling its accounts on a monthly basis, resulting in several departments being in the red. Nor is it backing up its records properly, the report states.
At a recent meeting in Kykotsmovi Village, several tribal employees, including general ledger accountant Wilfred Gaseoma, claimed they had tried to blow the whistle on the tribe's shoddy procedures and been suspended or fired in return.
In their report, the consultants had noted the absence of any policies protecting whistleblowers and recommended that be rectified, along with bringing the audits up to date, sharing the payroll software with Human Resources and the other departments and properly backing up the tribal records.
They also recommended the vacancies in the department be filled with qualified people and an assistant finance director be hired to help Begay with day-to-day operations so he can focus on long-term planning.