Category: Current Affairs & News
Publish Date: Sep 26, 2012
Views: 64167
Sept 25, 2012
Dear National Representatives and Local Executives of 30th PCNAK,
Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Hope that all of you are keeping well physically and spiritually, in the Lord. We missed some of you in the Conference at Hamilton. It was a very blessed conference for those who attended, as per the reports I received later. I thank God for His faithfulness to us and am grateful to those who ministered at the conference. Also I want to thank each of you who supported us through your prayers and presence, as well as your financial support.
I am forced to present certain facts about what transpired after the 30th conference, for those who love the PCNAK. The need for this email arose because of the following reasons:
1. To my astonishment, the National Secretary of the 30th PCNAK will not answer my phone calls, nor he will call back when messages are left on his phone. More than once, he did not participate in the conference call of the National Executives.
2. On Sept 16th, I got the following email: PCNAK 2012 ACCOUNT STORY (NEWS) WILL GO TO ALL MEDIA TOMORROW BEFORE 9PM. This is the last chance to show or give the account to all National Executives. IF NOT, PUBLIC HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THE DISCREPANCY OF 2012 PCNAK ACCOUNT. BENNY JOHN, NATIONAL TREASURER IS THE FULLY RESPONSIBLE PERSON TO KEEP AND REVEAL ALL 2012 PCNAK ACCOUNT. Thomas Kurian.
3. We have completed the accounts as on August 31st (the date of last bank statement) by completing the Receipts and Disbursements Journal and also prepared a draft of the Statement of Receipts and Disbursements and sent to the National Treasurer on Sept 17th for his review and then to forward to the National Secretary.
4. The above information was sent to the National Secretary by email on Sept 17th 8:36 PM.
5. After less than 23 hours,(Sept 18th 7:34 PM), the National Secretary sent an email to all National Representatives and whoever was on his BCC with a news release attachment, accusing the National Treasurer and me, on various matters.
6. The above news release was published in its entirety in news media.
Since the National Secretary is even accusing me about the accounts of the 10th PCNAK held in Toronto that happened twenty years ago, let me address this concern first, before I address his accusations regarding the 30th PCNAK.
Facts: It was the first time in the history of PCNAK we decided to do some charitable work. People contributed for special projects as announced by the conference and the funds were distributed to its recipients, through Independent organizations such as the Good News, Malabar Messenger and SworgeeyaDhwoni, for the marriage of 10 girls, houses for 10 needy families, and scholarship for 10 needy students. The help for 10 Bible school students and 10 North Indian Missionaries for one year, were made through various Bible schools and Church denominations or organizations. A complete report of the charitable activities was published in the 10th PCNAK Souvenir.
What happened at the general body of the next conference was, someone questioned why all the funds that were collected for special projects were not utilized fully for that purpose. An explanation was given that, in fact, we did more than what we initially planned to do and the balance of $3000 was handed over to the 11th conference and the matter was closed.
It is really unfortunate that someone is being accused without knowing any facts or truth and I want to state that it is absolutely wrong before God and man.
30th PCNAK
Accusation No 1. On several occasions National Secretary asked for accounts, but were not given and accounts were not completed even 2 months after the conference.
Facts: The conference received funds from various sources such as personal donations, church donations, and registration advances and all these were deposited by the Local Treasurer. The National Treasurer, National Secretary and the National Convener opened the bank accounts together, and all of them were given access to the accounts to logon and see the accounts at any time. Before the actual conference dates, only certain advances for the facility and hotels were paid, which were duly informed to all National Executives. Payments for online registrations were made through PayPal which was opened and operated by the National Secretary and I never got any access to this account.
Majority of the disbursements occurred during and after the conference and all payments were given by issuing cheques only, with an exception of three or four small cash payments, which have been duly accounted for.
All conference offerings were counted and recorded by a team of 5-6 people, including Bro. John Mathai, National Representative of Illinois, the Head Usher and the Local Treasurer.
On July 25th, the National Treasurer sent the National Executives a spreadsheet of all the cheques that had been issued from the PCNAK bank accounts, indicating which ones were yet to be cashed.
On July 28th, I sent a revised spreadsheet to the National Executives, taking into account the bank drafts for the facility and food, as well as wire transfer to Desperation Band, which werelarge amounts. In addition to this, I included the current bank balances to estimate the deficit.
The National Secretary initiated a conference call of the National Executives on July 30th, but he did not attend. I sent an email requesting for another conference call on August 1st, and the National Secretary did not attend that call either.
Based on the above facts, how can the National Secretary accuse anyone that the accounts were not given to him.
Even though the National Treasurer kept all the accounts of both Receipts and Disbursements, he asked me to get some help in finalizing the statements as early as possible, because of the pressure and the ultimatum from the National Secretary. Hence I got some help in that matter from one of our brothers in Toronto, who is an experienced accountant and the Statements were prepared upto August 31st and was sent to the National Treasurer for his review and to send to the National Secretary after his review. This was conveyed to the national Secretary on Sept 17th at 8:36 PM by email.
Based on the above facts, it is very clear that there is no basis for his allegations. I want to reiterate that the National Secretarys actions of sending the news report with lots of false accusations to the news media was unwarranted for and in deplorably poor taste.
Accusation No. 2 How come the 30th PCNAK is on deficit and why did the National Treasurer say that there will not be a deficit.
Facts:
1. Based on previous conferences, we expected the attendees to be 4000-5000. (The 10th PCNAK had an attendance of more than 3000 people.) We could not locate any hotels with a large conference hall to accommodate that many people. Therefore we had no choice but to choose the Hamilton Convention Centre and the Copps Coliseum, for which we incurred rental charges of about $28,759 even after getting a grant of $45,000 from the city.
2. Attendees were much less than expected; in fact just above 2000.
3.Fixed costs were high, irrespective of the number of attendees.
4. Discounted accommodation cost $123.17 vs $99.00 = $24.17 per day per room. The cost of Food $55.00 vs. $45.00 per day per person. Also, free parking was offered for pre-registrants. Bro. Benny and I wanted to keep the room rate at $109.00 and we did not want to offer free parking, but we gave in as Bro. Thomas Kurian insisted on these and finally we agreed, as it was to be offered only till March 31st. But since Bro. Thomas Kurian decided to have the Promotional meeting in New York to be held only in mid-May, we had to offer the pre-registration rate until May 31st. That means, when our cost for a room for 2 adults with parking was $779.51, we collected only $607.00. The total shortfall on food and accommodation alone is about $56,000. Parking was extra, on top of it.
5. On Friday July 6th night, the national executives and two local executives (Bro. Bobby John and Bro. Joy Chacko) got together in my room after the evening meeting. We consolidated all the money received during the conference up to that point from registration, offerings, etc., in order to deposit the money into the bank on Saturday morning. I then presented a draft spreadsheet that contained the expenses that had been paid to date, along with the expenses that were yet to be paid for the hotels, facilities, food, etc. Based on this, and the current balance in the two PCNAK bank accounts, I estimated that the deficit at this point was around $32,000 and since I felt it would be good to give at least $8000 to the 31st PCNAK, I urged that we needed to raise approximately $40,000. However, the National Treasurer and National Secretary did not agree that we needed to make a special appeal for funds, and felt that with the remaining regular conference offerings, there would be sufficient funds to pay off all the expenses. The National Treasurer announced on July 7 evening that if everyone gave $25 in the offering, the accounts should be OK, and many people responded and we got $10,402.
6. After the Saturday July 7th night meeting, the National Executives and the local treasurer Bro. Joy Chacko met again and I pleaded that at least $25,000 would have to be raised to balance the accounts. However, again the National Treasurer and National Secretary did not agree that we needed to make a special appeal for funds. Thus no special appeal for funds was made to the PCNAK attendees on Sunday July 8. On Sunday, the National Treasurer thanked the attendees for their contributions. I did not make any plea for extra offering, as there was no agreement among the Executives, and I did not want to create any confusion.
After the conference, on discussion with the National Treasurer, he acknowledged that he did not realize that we have to pay HST (13% tax) and hence he did not include the taxes in his projected expenses. In fact, the total tax that we paid for the facility and food comes to approximately $40,000.00.
Conclusion: Instead of resolving any petty differences among the National Executives and working in unity for the success of the conference, the National Secretary chose a path of destruction and retaliation. This kind of action is unprecedented in the history of PCNAK. May God give him the grace and wisdom to realize the immensity of the damages he has caused by his actions and help him to undo the same by taking appropriate steps. I hope that the National Secretary will realize his role in getting us in the financial restraint and rather than shrugging off his responsibility, and he and Bro. Reji Abraham will step in and help us out of this debt of $40,000.00.
Thank you for taking the time to read this email. I hope you understand the feelings of Bro. Benny John and me. Please remember us in your prayers.
With Christian love
Easaw Philip
National Convener
Dear Easow...
You may be calling Easooyeeee...
Any one who is handling the Lord's money should be VERY careful.
Otherwise we may ended up calling Easooyeee.. like Judas.
Sorry.