Numerous financial improprieties continue to dog the Amerindian Purposes Fund (APF), according to the Auditor-General’s report for 2014 which also questioned the legality of the fund.
The report noted that APF was established in 2000 in keeping with a proviso in Section 26 of the Amerindian Act. The Act was later repealed by Section 84 of the Amerindian Act (2006), which did not provide for the operation of the fund. Nonetheless, the original Act, at Section 29, required the preparation of financial statements and an audit by the Auditor General. “This, even though not captured in the current Act, are best practice requirements of any accounting process, but were never satisfied since the opening of the fund,” the report said.
The explanation given by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, now the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs was that the ministry wrote to the Ministry of Legal Affairs twice for advice on the way forward to ensure the legality of the fund was replenished. However, to