The following was provided to me by an anonymous source, and has since then been posted on the Area 6 FB page as well as other forums. USPSA’s accountant resigned from USPSA, with an effective final day of September 30th because corporate funds were not being properly accounted for. Here is the entire text of her resignation letter:
September 16, 2014
Dear USPSA BOD members:
Each year I work closely with out accounting company and bookkeeper to ensure that the accounting records are in order. At the end of last year I started to notice charges on a company credit card issued to Kim (Williams, USPSA Executive Director – ed) for which there were no receipts. I have requested the receipts but she has not provided them. The bookkeeper comes in every month to balance the bank statement. Each time she comes in she finds a charge on the bank statement for the credit card payment must put the item into the suspense account. She has expressed concern that this is not being handled properly. The suspense account is now at $144,632.18.
Kim has become quite defensive about this issue. I contacted my attorney some time ago and he advised me to send a letter to the BOD with my concerns. I have documented everything concerning the missing receipts, and my attempts to resolve this issue. I have attached a copy of the suspense account for 2014.
I’ve enjoyed serving the membership of USPSA for the last 21 years. I am just trying to do the right thing. Therefore, my last day will be September 30, 2014.
If you have any questions or would like copies of the documentation I have in my possession, please contact me at your convenience.
Sincerely,
Barbara Kennedy
Accounting Specialist, USPSA/IPSC Inc.
Essentially, what’s happening is that there are charges on the corporate card that are being made without receipts provided to accounting, and when the bill for the corporate card is paid each month, the money must be filed into the suspense account. Wikipedia has an excellent summary of what a suspense account is used for in accounting practice: “A suspense account is an account used temporarily to carry doubtful receipts and disbursements or discrepancies pending their analysis and permanent classification.”
For those interested, here is a pdf copy of the letter of resignation as well as a current look at the suspense account – no account numbers or damaging financial information is contained in this.
Kim Williams had recently come under fire when two members of the Board of Directors put forward a motion in a recent BOD meeting calling for her immediate resignation. The motion failed, and the members immediately resigned.
As of press time, we have contacted Phil Strader, USPSA President via email for a statement on this matter.
Wow, the Board of Directors appear to be completely abdicating their most basic responsibility.
If there is any sort of impropriety, I doubt the Exec. Dir. would survive the annual audit (they do engage an audit firm annually, right?). That much unexplained and undocumented Executive expenses stuck in a suspense account would never fly with any reputable public accounting firm.
Why didn’t USPSA fault lines stop this?
$144,000 and it is mostly Kim’s expenses, if this doesn’t force the BOD to can her nothing will.
Note: This wasn’t the USPSA’s accountant. (Shame on you Caleb! +2 for not fact-checking! 🙂 )
In addition, her opinion about this saying things like “have not provided receipts” and “Kim being defensive” has apparently been turned into “Kim has refused to give receipts” which oddly enough, is not what this letter says.
The $144K account is the sum of all items in the suspense account—many of which obviously (from the notations) not from Kim.
It is certainly true that there are a number of items in there from Kim.
Also true is that items in the suspense account (which is a common practice in many/most businesses) often are there until specifics of contested charges are settled, as mentioned by Chuck Anderson, former BoD member. (And since he resigned due to differences with the current administration of USPSA, it isn’t like he’d be likely to cover for anyone.) He suggested that at least one charge (for $37K) was probably due to Nationals expenses, which of course have not fully been tallied or finalized yet.
Not saying there isn’t an issue here that needs to be clarified. That being said, there is a lot here that is irrelevant.
After reading how Charles Bond originally posted this on the Area 6 Facebook page, mostly I’m curious about two points:
1) what items specifically are at issue here (because it obviously isn’t the entire expense account, though the wording of this makes it seem so), according to Kennedy, and what is the admin’s response/accounting for those charges, and
2) How did a non-board member obtain a copy of this letter to post publicly?
For the record, I’m just reporting the information I’m presented with. As I mentioned, I reached out to USPSA for comment, and have yet to hear anything back. I intentionally refrained from speculation in the post itself because I believe that there is more information to come out that could provide clarification.
To the important points – Barbara’s email identified herself as an Accounting Specialist; hence me referring to her as an accountant. To your first question, 1) I have actually reached out to multiple individuals to get clarification on which items specifically were at issue. 2) Come on, I’m not going to reveal a source like that.
Many people received an email from an anonymous source. Someone within the BOD wants this info out there AND given how past BOD members were threatened with lawsuits, I can’t blame them for wanting to remain anonymous.
Link to BOD letter on the USPSA web page on the matter:
http://www.uspsa.org/uspsa-announcements-details.php?BOD-Annoucment-187