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Financial report unexpectedly needed audit, says Green's Weaver

Green Party candidate Andrew Weaver provided The Tyee with a detailed account of why the party's Oak Bay-Gordon Head constituency association failed to submit a complete financial report to Elections BC.

The constituency association was one of just nine organizations, out of 181, missing the deadline and having until June 28 to file. They'll pay a $100 late filing fee, The Tyee reported.

Former NDP MLA David Schreck made much of the filing problem on Twitter. "If I was in position of any candidate running against Weaver I'd make sure every voter in OBGH knows about this," he wrote.

In an email, Weaver wrote:

"Our financial report was submitted on time but returned to us as it needed to be audited (for reasons explained below).

"Our CA Financial Agent understood that if the contributions received in the calendar year were over $10,000 then an audit was required. As the named contributions totaled $9,705 she believed that the CA was under the limits.

"Back in the fall, our constituency association co-sponsored a big David Suzuki event at the conference centre. After the event, buckets were passed around for people to offer voluntary cash donations to help defray the costs. Our cost for the event was $2500 and we received $2498 in anonymous (pass the hat) donations.

"The David Suzuki event netted the CA income of $2. Our CA Financial Agent reported both the revenue and expense and incorrectly assumed that since the net was just $2 we were still below the $10,000 limit before requiring an official audit.

"To rectify the situation, we are following due process by securing an auditor, obtaining approval by Elections BC for the auditor, having the audit completed and submitted to Elections BC as soon as possible.  We are dealing with this with the utmost urgency."

Others missing the deadline included five Conservative constituency associations, the Reform Party of BC, the Helping Hand Party and the BC Patriot Party.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.

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