Wasaya Airways – Former CEO Says Bad Decisions and Mismanagement Hurt Communities
THUNDER BAY – Former Wasaya Group Inc. CEO and President Tom Kam states, “The bad decisions and mismanagement by Wasaya Airways LP (WALP) senior management that have come to light is a very serious concern to me. The abuse of company credit cards and company credit policies have resulted in a loss of profit for my community for the fiscal year”.
“This allegation can be proven by professional accountants. These allegations will need to be investigated by proper authorities,” continued Kam.
“Recent developments are that the Wasaya Chiefs have removed the Board of Directors, and have placed themselves as the new Board. The shareholders (Chiefs) have a right to do that”.
“But proper legal advice should have been provided to them before they made this move,” comments Kam. “What this means for my community is that Bearskin Lake Band now has a potential liability with WALP’s Statutory Obligations, and there are many”.
The developing issue could be damaging to the company’s reputation.
“Band operated businesses have a high rate of failure, and to my knowledge, none of the Chiefs have ever operated a multi-million dollar business”, states Kam. “So I expect the businesses will suffer, and the concern here for my community is the millions they have invested into Wasaya will be lost”.
“The banking institutions, major clients, suppliers, and customers, etc. will have questions and concerns, we will continue to lose contracts as is what is happening with WALP. We will continue to lose contracts under present senior management until we have nothing to work with”.
Kam is very concerned over the potential damage to the company over the long-term.
“The Chiefs have lost the focus of our Elders’ vision. The vision to bring benefits and profits to our communities, more specifically, the community low income, and social recipient members are being compromised.”
“The high overhead costs of bad decisions and mis-management of the senior managers is now the burden of our community members and clients, the very people WALP was supposed to help, we pay in a form of high fares and high freight rates”.
The value of a dollar in Thunder Bay is not the same in Bearskin Lake; it is worth only about $0.45 cents.
Kam concludes, “The Wasaya Group of Companies is not structured to produce revenues and profits. The Wasaya businesses such as WALP are structured to produce profits for our communities, as per their six figure contracts, in the estimated amount of $1.0 million annually for five senior managers. The communities have yet to enjoy their profits and benefits”.
As the former Wasaya Group Inc. CEO and President, Kam states, “The last major move that the Chiefs have done is a removal of Acting CEO of WGI, an indication that there is a cover-up by the Chiefs and senior management of Wasaya Airways LP. This is not a smart move, and could be detrimental to Wasaya as a whole group”.
“This is not good for our communities and specially the staff of Wasaya. Wasaya Chiefs and their legal adviser are not aviation experts, so I feel this is a wrong move,” concluded Kam.
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