Adams Ambulance Ordered to File Financial Reports
ADAMS, Mass. — The Adams Ambulance Service has been ordered to institute better accounting practices and update its bylaws to bring it into compliance with state laws governing nonprofit reporting practices.The service's board of directors also has agreed to hire a certified public accountant and make timely reviews of the ambulance service's financial statements.
The attorney general's office said the service has not filed annual financial reports for the years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, and 2008 and submitted incomplete reports for years 2005 and 2006. It was placed on the attorney general's Non-Compliant Public Charities list on April 9, 2009, and will not be removed until it comes into full compliance.
"When a charity continually fails to submit required annual financial statements to our office, it invites skepticism that charitable funds are being misused," said Attorney General Martha Coakley in a statement. "Financial transparency is a critical part of our effort to ensure that non-profit charitable organizations are held fully accountable to the public they serve."
A governance agreement signed on Nov. 24 by the ambulance board's President Joseph R. Dean Jr., its Treasurer Michael Kwasniowski Jr. and other officers, acknowledged that the 39-year-old service's record-keeping was shoddy and that it had failed to submit its financial reports to the state as required by law.
The agreement states that the board "will take all necessary steps in order to ensure that Adams Ambulance comes into compliance with the statutory obligations ... for the past three fiscal years, i.e. the fiscal years ending June 30, 2007, June 30,2008, and June 30, 2009."
The reports will have to be completed by a certified public accountant hired by the and filed by Jan. 31, 2010, although the it can request an extension.
Among the issues targeted by the attorney general's office was the implementation of policies and procedures governing conflict of interest and, at least annually, take statements "from members of the board and senior management of Adams Ambulance disclosing any financial interest those individuals may have in transactions engaged in by Adams Ambulance."
It is required review and update its bylaws to ensure better financial oversight and to provide the attorney general's office with the updated version.
