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RCMP Priorities Planning Session
Supervisor Statement on annual RCMP Priorities Planning Session: Dear Residents of SYSRC: On April 1st, 2026, I will represent the community at the Annual RCMP Priorities Planning Session. This session is a key opportunity for municipal stakeholders from across the...
Accounting & Financial Review Part 5
Part 5 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (full report): Dear Residents of SYSRC: The final report can be accessed below: PART 1PART 2
Accounting & Financial Review Part 1-4
Part 1 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (Context setting): IMPORTANT NOTE: This post contains four of the five parts report on the accounting system review. These...
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Supervisor Statement on annual RCMP Priorities Planning Session:
Dear Residents of SYSRC:
On April 1st, 2026, I will represent the community at the Annual RCMP Priorities Planning Session.
This session is a key opportunity for municipal stakeholders from across the region to come together to discuss, evaluate, and set the policing priorities that communities in the region would like the RCMP to focus on over the next 12 months. It allows each community to share its experiences, highlight emerging concerns, and contribute to a coordinated strategy for strengthening public safety throughout our region.
I would like to participate meaningfully in shaping this year’s priorities and to prepare I will look at last year’s files to see what issues were brought up by the community representative in 2025.
But I would also like to hear your perspective. If you have anything you feel is important for me to know in advance of the session, I would invite you to send me those comments or insights to me at contact@sysrc.ca on supervisor@sysrc.ca or call the office.
Thank you
Don Ferguson
Supervisor SYSRC
Dear Residents of SYSRC:
On April 1st, 2026, I will represent the community at the Annual RCMP Priorities Planning Session.
This session is a key opportunity for municipal stakeholders from across the region to come together to discuss, evaluate, and set the policing priorities that communities in the region would like the RCMP to focus on over the next 12 months. It allows each community to share its experiences, highlight emerging concerns, and contribute to a coordinated strategy for strengthening public safety throughout our region.
I would like to participate meaningfully in shaping this year’s priorities and to prepare I will look at last year’s files to see what issues were brought up by the community representative in 2025.
But I would also like to hear your perspective. If you have anything you feel is important for me to know in advance of the session, I would invite you to send me those comments or insights to me at contact@sysrc.ca on supervisor@sysrc.ca or call the office.
Thank you
Don Ferguson
Supervisor SYSRC
Part 5 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (full report):
Dear Residents of SYSRC:
The final report can be access at here:
Dear Residents of SYSRC:
The final report can be access at here:
Accounting & Financial Review Part 5 | Sunbury-York South Rural Community
Part 5 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (full report):
Part 1 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (Context setting):
IMPORTANT NOTE: This post contains four of the five parts report on the accounting system review. These four parts are in a continuous and consecutive string and are all contained within this one post. Part five comes tomorrow.
Dear Residents of SYSRC:
There have been three staff administrations in SYSRC since its inception. The first on was 2023 and 2024, the second one was for 6 months in 2025, and the third one is the supervisory mandate.
The issue of whether fraud was committed in SYSRC by the first administration was and still is somewhat persistent in the community.
The last Council had started examining the financial system and had taken at least two actions. One was advertising a request for proposals (RFP) on the performance of a forensic audit. The second was on the development of a purchasing policy that was somewhat restrictive.
Regarding a forensic audit RFP, only one proposal was received and the amount quoted in the proposal was $100,000 plus expenses. The expenses were expected to be significant as the audit team members all resided outside the province. The council members had not yet decided how to proceed by the time they lost quorum.
The forensic audit was flagged as a significant issue to look at by some members of the last council when I met with them individually at the beginning of my mandate.
In my initial review of past spending decisions, it was evident that there were ill-advised spending decisions by the first administration and an apparent lack of solid financial controls that was long-standing dating to the beginning of the first administration.
But there was no obvious evidence of fraud having been committed. This was supported by two clean yearly financial audited statements from a respected accounting firm in the past two years where they could not find any evidence of fraud.
Incidentally, a forensic audit is an investigative examination of financial records to determine facts, identify fraud, and support legal processes.
Fraud is defined as an intentional act of deception by management, employees, governance, or third parties to obtain an unjust or illegal advantage or personal benefit.
It is important to note that poor decision making is not fraud.
The decision points for SYSRC going forward were to:
Option 1: to hire an accounting firm to do a full forensic audit at a cost of more than $100,000 which would likely have resulted in a report that probably would have found no incidences of fraud but that did not contain any recommendations on how to shore up the financial and accounting systems at SYSRC
Option 2: to hire an accounting firm to do a full review of the financial, purchasing and accounting practices at SYSRC with the view of making recommendations on the redesign and strengthening the system. While at it, the firm would be asked to look for incidents where fraud could have been committed and submit an opinion or the possibility that it had occurred
The second option had the advantage of being much less expensive and at the end of the work, we would be left with tangible recommendations on how to ensure that SYSRC had solid financial practices going forward. That is the option that was chosen.
In the part 2 of this statement (which immediately follows), we outline the selection process for the review, and the company that was chosen to do the work. We will also outline their approach.
The Part 3 statement which immediately follows Part 2, describes the work that was performed, the conclusions that were reached and the recommendations that were made.
Part 4, which again immediately follows Part 3, outlines the recommended 90-day plan to establish strong financial practices at SYSRC prior to the arrival of the next council.
Finally, Part 5 is coming tomorrow, and will provide the link to the full consultant’s report.
Part 2 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (Introducing the procurement process, the service provider, fees and an overview of their work):
After deciding on the best option to proceed with our review, we contacted the Department of Environment and Local Government, Financial Division for advice. They are the provincial experts on municipal financial administration. We outlined our objectives and potential paths forward including possible personnel to do the work we wanted done. They strongly recommended that we contract with e6 Management Consulting LP (e6), a firm from Moncton that has extensive experience here in New Brunswick in the domain of municipal financial systems.
This is a link to their web site:
https://e6finance/
In late 2025, we asked e6 to submit a proposal which we reviewed and we subsequently did a sole source award with them to perform a current-state finance and organizational review for SYSRC. The objective was to evaluate governance, financial management practices, and operational effectiveness and to identify operational opportunities to reduce risk, improve consistency, strengthen long term sustainability provide practical recommendations to strengthen the organization going forward. We also asked them to look for and provide advice on whether there were incidences of fraud.
The review was completed between November 2025 and January 2026. It included meetings with staff, a review of financial documents, and an examination of systems, policies, and day-to-day practices. The cost for the review $11,500 plus HST.
The findings of the review are organized in Key Areas:
Vision and Strategy
Business Architecture
Operations
Finance
Performance Management
The assessment by e6 indicated that there were no evidence of deliberate mismanagement of funds or fraud. Doing a forensic audit was not recommended by them as they felt that resources could be more effectively invested in strengthening policies, controls and documentation to reduce future risk.
The recommended work will substantially strengthen governance, increase resilience and build confidence for Council and the Community without requiring significant structural change or cost.
In the next part, we provide the findings in a little more detail. Please remember that the full report will be shared in the fifth statement.
Part 3 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (High level findings):
Here are the recommendations from the review.
Vision and Strategy:
SYSRC does not currently have a clearly documented vision or strategic plan. This makes it harder to set priorities, align staff and council decisions, and ensuring that everyone is working toward the same goals. As a result, decisions can become reactive rather than proactive.
While this may not be the right time to develop a full long-term strategic plan, having a small number of clear short term guiding principles, individual work plans, clear objectives and measures for success would help provide alignment and clarity.
Business Architecture:
Some roles and responsibilities are partially defined and not formally documented, but work has begun to rectify this. Knowledge is concentrated in a few key individuals creating risks during absence or turnover. There is a heavy reliance on manual (paper based) processes.
The goal here is to complete the documentation and Implementation of roles and responsibilities and eventually look at future opportunities to automate and digitize where appropriate.
Operations:
Many key operational processes—such as accounts payable, payroll, banking, expense tracking are well understood but are largely manual /non-transferable. Segregation of duties is limited due to staffing constraints, increasing control risks. There is a need for standardized documentation
The objective is to document and communicate key operational processes to allow for continuity and knowledge transfer.
Financial:
SYSRC has budgeting and forecasting processes, but financial reviews are inconsistent. Purchasing policies are overly restrictive in places and unclear in others creating bottlenecks and inconsistent application. Good work has been completed to ensure that reconciliations, payroll and invoice approvals have a review and documentation.
Dual authorization for payment is now consistently enforced.
The goal is to document and communicate key processes and policies to allow for continuity and knowledge transfer.
Performance Management:
SYSRC does not currently use clear performance measures to track service delivery or organizational effectiveness. Performance information is informal and not systematically linked to objectives or decision making. This limits the ability to monitor progress, assess value for money, and proactively address issues.
The goal is to establish a small number of financial and non-financial indicators and start reporting on them each month.
Key High-Level Recommendations:
Key (high-level) recommendations are focussing on practical stabilization rather than transformation and include:
Documenting and standardizing key finance and operational processes
Clarifying and formalizing roles, responsibilities and system access
Strengthening internal controls (approval, segregation of duties, reconciliations)
Updating and formally adopting core financial and purchasing policies
Future digitizing of records and adopting simple workflow tools (where feasible)
Establishing a small number of clear, meaningful performance indicators
Implementing staff workplans with defined objectives and accountability
Conclusion:
SYSRC is serving its community with commitment, but it is operating with systems and practices that were implemented early in the community’s existence and that leaves it exposed to unnecessary risk. By taking practical steps to improve clarity, documentation, and consistency, SYSRC can strengthen governance, improve transparency, and better support the long-term sustainability of services for the communities it serves.
Part 4 provides you with the 90-day plan to implement the recommendations.
Part 4 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (90-day plan):
This is the 90-plan that we will be working with the view of having the new system implemented by the time the new Council is sworn in.
The plan is Priority‑Driven • Practical • Sequenced for Capacity
Here is the plan:
PHASE 1 — First 30 Days (Stabilize & Reduce Risk)
Goal: Reduce immediate risk and establish clarity.
Key Actions:
1. Establish short-term guiding principles.
2. Clarify roles and responsibilities for key staff.
3. Tighten immediate financial controls.
4. Address high-risk policy gaps (e.g., purchasing, credit cards).
5. Prepare for the process on reducing paper-based processes.
PHASE 2 — Days 31–60 (Document & Standardize Processes)
Goal: Strengthen consistency, efficiency, and internal controls.
Key Actions:
6. Document core finance workflows (AP, payroll, reconciliations, etc.).
7. Standardize forms and templates for expenses, time tracking, and leave.
8. Review and adjust system access rights.
9. Plan for AP/invoice digitization. (optional)
10. Implement staff workplans with defined objectives.
PHASE 3 — Days 61–90 (Improve Oversight & Measurement)
Goal: Strengthen governance, visibility, and evidence-based decisions.
Key Actions:
11. Introduce basic performance indicators (KPIs).
12. Create a simple monthly dashboard.
13. Update and adopt key financial policies.
14. Formalize risk management practices.
15. Conduct a 90-day review with new Council.
Part 5 which comes tomorrow will provide a link to the full e6 report.
I am very happy with the work that was done and I am confident that the 90-day plan will result in a financial system that not only you can have confidence in but also of which you can be proud.
My hope is that the community is able to turn the page and move on from this.
Don Ferguson
Supervisor SYSRC
IMPORTANT NOTE: This post contains four of the five parts report on the accounting system review. These four parts are in a continuous and consecutive string and are all contained within this one post. Part five comes tomorrow.
Dear Residents of SYSRC:
There have been three staff administrations in SYSRC since its inception. The first on was 2023 and 2024, the second one was for 6 months in 2025, and the third one is the supervisory mandate.
The issue of whether fraud was committed in SYSRC by the first administration was and still is somewhat persistent in the community.
The last Council had started examining the financial system and had taken at least two actions. One was advertising a request for proposals (RFP) on the performance of a forensic audit. The second was on the development of a purchasing policy that was somewhat restrictive.
Regarding a forensic audit RFP, only one proposal was received and the amount quoted in the proposal was $100,000 plus expenses. The expenses were expected to be significant as the audit team members all resided outside the province. The council members had not yet decided how to proceed by the time they lost quorum.
The forensic audit was flagged as a significant issue to look at by some members of the last council when I met with them individually at the beginning of my mandate.
In my initial review of past spending decisions, it was evident that there were ill-advised spending decisions by the first administration and an apparent lack of solid financial controls that was long-standing dating to the beginning of the first administration.
But there was no obvious evidence of fraud having been committed. This was supported by two clean yearly financial audited statements from a respected accounting firm in the past two years where they could not find any evidence of fraud.
Incidentally, a forensic audit is an investigative examination of financial records to determine facts, identify fraud, and support legal processes.
Fraud is defined as an intentional act of deception by management, employees, governance, or third parties to obtain an unjust or illegal advantage or personal benefit.
It is important to note that poor decision making is not fraud.
The decision points for SYSRC going forward were to:
Option 1: to hire an accounting firm to do a full forensic audit at a cost of more than $100,000 which would likely have resulted in a report that probably would have found no incidences of fraud but that did not contain any recommendations on how to shore up the financial and accounting systems at SYSRC
Option 2: to hire an accounting firm to do a full review of the financial, purchasing and accounting practices at SYSRC with the view of making recommendations on the redesign and strengthening the system. While at it, the firm would be asked to look for incidents where fraud could have been committed and submit an opinion or the possibility that it had occurred
The second option had the advantage of being much less expensive and at the end of the work, we would be left with tangible recommendations on how to ensure that SYSRC had solid financial practices going forward. That is the option that was chosen.
In the part 2 of this statement (which immediately follows), we outline the selection process for the review, and the company that was chosen to do the work. We will also outline their approach.
The Part 3 statement which immediately follows Part 2, describes the work that was performed, the conclusions that were reached and the recommendations that were made.
Part 4, which again immediately follows Part 3, outlines the recommended 90-day plan to establish strong financial practices at SYSRC prior to the arrival of the next council.
Finally, Part 5 is coming tomorrow, and will provide the link to the full consultant’s report.
Part 2 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (Introducing the procurement process, the service provider, fees and an overview of their work):
After deciding on the best option to proceed with our review, we contacted the Department of Environment and Local Government, Financial Division for advice. They are the provincial experts on municipal financial administration. We outlined our objectives and potential paths forward including possible personnel to do the work we wanted done. They strongly recommended that we contract with e6 Management Consulting LP (e6), a firm from Moncton that has extensive experience here in New Brunswick in the domain of municipal financial systems.
This is a link to their web site:
https://e6finance/
In late 2025, we asked e6 to submit a proposal which we reviewed and we subsequently did a sole source award with them to perform a current-state finance and organizational review for SYSRC. The objective was to evaluate governance, financial management practices, and operational effectiveness and to identify operational opportunities to reduce risk, improve consistency, strengthen long term sustainability provide practical recommendations to strengthen the organization going forward. We also asked them to look for and provide advice on whether there were incidences of fraud.
The review was completed between November 2025 and January 2026. It included meetings with staff, a review of financial documents, and an examination of systems, policies, and day-to-day practices. The cost for the review $11,500 plus HST.
The findings of the review are organized in Key Areas:
Vision and Strategy
Business Architecture
Operations
Finance
Performance Management
The assessment by e6 indicated that there were no evidence of deliberate mismanagement of funds or fraud. Doing a forensic audit was not recommended by them as they felt that resources could be more effectively invested in strengthening policies, controls and documentation to reduce future risk.
The recommended work will substantially strengthen governance, increase resilience and build confidence for Council and the Community without requiring significant structural change or cost.
In the next part, we provide the findings in a little more detail. Please remember that the full report will be shared in the fifth statement.
Part 3 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (High level findings):
Here are the recommendations from the review.
Vision and Strategy:
SYSRC does not currently have a clearly documented vision or strategic plan. This makes it harder to set priorities, align staff and council decisions, and ensuring that everyone is working toward the same goals. As a result, decisions can become reactive rather than proactive.
While this may not be the right time to develop a full long-term strategic plan, having a small number of clear short term guiding principles, individual work plans, clear objectives and measures for success would help provide alignment and clarity.
Business Architecture:
Some roles and responsibilities are partially defined and not formally documented, but work has begun to rectify this. Knowledge is concentrated in a few key individuals creating risks during absence or turnover. There is a heavy reliance on manual (paper based) processes.
The goal here is to complete the documentation and Implementation of roles and responsibilities and eventually look at future opportunities to automate and digitize where appropriate.
Operations:
Many key operational processes—such as accounts payable, payroll, banking, expense tracking are well understood but are largely manual /non-transferable. Segregation of duties is limited due to staffing constraints, increasing control risks. There is a need for standardized documentation
The objective is to document and communicate key operational processes to allow for continuity and knowledge transfer.
Financial:
SYSRC has budgeting and forecasting processes, but financial reviews are inconsistent. Purchasing policies are overly restrictive in places and unclear in others creating bottlenecks and inconsistent application. Good work has been completed to ensure that reconciliations, payroll and invoice approvals have a review and documentation.
Dual authorization for payment is now consistently enforced.
The goal is to document and communicate key processes and policies to allow for continuity and knowledge transfer.
Performance Management:
SYSRC does not currently use clear performance measures to track service delivery or organizational effectiveness. Performance information is informal and not systematically linked to objectives or decision making. This limits the ability to monitor progress, assess value for money, and proactively address issues.
The goal is to establish a small number of financial and non-financial indicators and start reporting on them each month.
Key High-Level Recommendations:
Key (high-level) recommendations are focussing on practical stabilization rather than transformation and include:
Documenting and standardizing key finance and operational processes
Clarifying and formalizing roles, responsibilities and system access
Strengthening internal controls (approval, segregation of duties, reconciliations)
Updating and formally adopting core financial and purchasing policies
Future digitizing of records and adopting simple workflow tools (where feasible)
Establishing a small number of clear, meaningful performance indicators
Implementing staff workplans with defined objectives and accountability
Conclusion:
SYSRC is serving its community with commitment, but it is operating with systems and practices that were implemented early in the community’s existence and that leaves it exposed to unnecessary risk. By taking practical steps to improve clarity, documentation, and consistency, SYSRC can strengthen governance, improve transparency, and better support the long-term sustainability of services for the communities it serves.
Part 4 provides you with the 90-day plan to implement the recommendations.
Part 4 of 5 parts on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the addressing the long-standing demands for a forensic audit (90-day plan):
This is the 90-plan that we will be working with the view of having the new system implemented by the time the new Council is sworn in.
The plan is Priority‑Driven • Practical • Sequenced for Capacity
Here is the plan:
PHASE 1 — First 30 Days (Stabilize & Reduce Risk)
Goal: Reduce immediate risk and establish clarity.
Key Actions:
1. Establish short-term guiding principles.
2. Clarify roles and responsibilities for key staff.
3. Tighten immediate financial controls.
4. Address high-risk policy gaps (e.g., purchasing, credit cards).
5. Prepare for the process on reducing paper-based processes.
PHASE 2 — Days 31–60 (Document & Standardize Processes)
Goal: Strengthen consistency, efficiency, and internal controls.
Key Actions:
6. Document core finance workflows (AP, payroll, reconciliations, etc.).
7. Standardize forms and templates for expenses, time tracking, and leave.
8. Review and adjust system access rights.
9. Plan for AP/invoice digitization. (optional)
10. Implement staff workplans with defined objectives.
PHASE 3 — Days 61–90 (Improve Oversight & Measurement)
Goal: Strengthen governance, visibility, and evidence-based decisions.
Key Actions:
11. Introduce basic performance indicators (KPIs).
12. Create a simple monthly dashboard.
13. Update and adopt key financial policies.
14. Formalize risk management practices.
15. Conduct a 90-day review with new Council.
Part 5 which comes tomorrow will provide a link to the full e6 report.
I am very happy with the work that was done and I am confident that the 90-day plan will result in a financial system that not only you can have confidence in but also of which you can be proud.
My hope is that the community is able to turn the page and move on from this.
Don Ferguson
Supervisor SYSRC
SYS heads up statement on:
- 5-part series on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the long-standing request for a forensic audit
- Important comments on the Audited Financial Statements at the end of this statement:
Dear Residents of SYSRC:
We have just completed a review of SYSRC’s accounting and financial system. The review includes a determination on whether there is a need for a forensic audit or not. This was performed by a firm of chartered accountants.
This review should not come as a surprise as I have mentioned it either in passing or very specifically in statements to you on at least four occasions:
- November 12th
- November 24th
- December 15th
- January 28th (this statement very explicitly detailed the work we were doing)
In the next two days we will post two statements on the conclusion of the review. They will consist of one statement containing the first four-parts (to be posted on Wednesday) and a statement on the fifth part (to be posted on Thursday). This fifth part will be the review’s full report.
The four parts are as follows:
- Part 1: Context setting
- Part 2: Introducing the procurement process, the service provider and fees and an overview of their work
- Part 3: High level findings from the review
- Part 4: 90-day plan to implement a solid financial and accounting system
- Part 5: A link to the full report
I invite you to fully read the posts.
Incidentally, I understand there are public questions on the audited financial statements more specifically that I had not announced they would be done. I refer you to my Statement of December 4th 2025, in which I informed you that we would start the work on the audited financial statements in the next one or two weeks from there...which we did. The results will be posted when the statements are ready.
I have been very transparent with everyone since day one. My view is that once I state publicly that we would be doing work on an item, my obligation to next comment on that work again would be once the work is done, unless there was a stage in the work that was an important milestone or that there was a change of plan.
My commitment to you from the start was that I would give you heads up on important work to come so there would be no surprises and that I would communicate the conclusion of that work. I feel I have met that commitment.
Don Ferguson
SYSRC Supervisor
- 5-part series on the SYSRC accounting and financial system review including the long-standing request for a forensic audit
- Important comments on the Audited Financial Statements at the end of this statement:
Dear Residents of SYSRC:
We have just completed a review of SYSRC’s accounting and financial system. The review includes a determination on whether there is a need for a forensic audit or not. This was performed by a firm of chartered accountants.
This review should not come as a surprise as I have mentioned it either in passing or very specifically in statements to you on at least four occasions:
- November 12th
- November 24th
- December 15th
- January 28th (this statement very explicitly detailed the work we were doing)
In the next two days we will post two statements on the conclusion of the review. They will consist of one statement containing the first four-parts (to be posted on Wednesday) and a statement on the fifth part (to be posted on Thursday). This fifth part will be the review’s full report.
The four parts are as follows:
- Part 1: Context setting
- Part 2: Introducing the procurement process, the service provider and fees and an overview of their work
- Part 3: High level findings from the review
- Part 4: 90-day plan to implement a solid financial and accounting system
- Part 5: A link to the full report
I invite you to fully read the posts.
Incidentally, I understand there are public questions on the audited financial statements more specifically that I had not announced they would be done. I refer you to my Statement of December 4th 2025, in which I informed you that we would start the work on the audited financial statements in the next one or two weeks from there...which we did. The results will be posted when the statements are ready.
I have been very transparent with everyone since day one. My view is that once I state publicly that we would be doing work on an item, my obligation to next comment on that work again would be once the work is done, unless there was a stage in the work that was an important milestone or that there was a change of plan.
My commitment to you from the start was that I would give you heads up on important work to come so there would be no surprises and that I would communicate the conclusion of that work. I feel I have met that commitment.
Don Ferguson
SYSRC Supervisor