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Adams Ambulance Ordered to File Financial ReportsStaff reports
iBerkshires
04:01PM / Thursday, December 03, 2009
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. |
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary. Comments are closed for this article. If you would like to contribute information on this article, e-mail us at info@iBerkshires.com |
it figures ... kwasniowski is involved as treasurer. what are you people thinking of putting him in charge of your books? don't you learn?
Editor: no name calling. | | from: go figure | on: 12-03-2009 12:00AM
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| hahaha. can you say "on the take" | | from: peter pumkin eater | on: 12-04-2009 12:00AM
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| Solution - Adams Ambulance should fold and let a PROFESSIONAL ambulance service take over to serve the needs of our residents. I often see one local agency constantly coming into our town to answer our calls for help. | | from: MNA | on: 12-04-2009 12:00AM
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| I can't believe it has taken this long for board of director's to hire a accountant. This is business 101! | | from: geez | on: 12-04-2009 12:00AM
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| Welcome to Adams where the "Ol Boy" network is always operating behind the scenes. You embezzle from a bank and you end up responsible for the finances of the local ambulance service. Politics in Adams is like soap making, the scum always rises to the top! | | from: Yup Again! | on: 12-06-2009 12:00AM
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Where has management been for the last 7 years??
Had I only known, I would not have donated for the last 12 years! | | from: Adams Res. | on: 12-06-2009 12:00AM
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| You are kidding, right? The guy who got canned form South Adams Savings for dipping into bank and PNA funds is not in charge of the non-profits books? You are so right. The ol' boy network in Adams is alive and well and working for all to see. There is a small group of town "leaders" who continue to look out for themselves and a small group of their cronies. Everybody else gets the table scraps. I've lived in Adams my entire life and, after all the crap with the board and everything else, I think it's time to get out while the getting is good. | | from: Wow | on: 12-10-2009 12:00AM
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| Next time, instead of sending your usual annual donation to the Adams Ambulance Service, send the donation request form back with the message "Not until the Board of Directors is Replaced" | | from: Yup Again! | on: 12-11-2009 12:00AM
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