News broke recently that a Sikh priest in Winnipeg has been charged with stealing likely over a millions dollars from the local place of worship he managed. According to police, this wasn’t a one-time mistake or a moment of poor judgment. The alleged theft spanned seven years—starting in 2016—and involved repeated misuse of organizational funds.
It’s a situation that hits hard, especially for those who’ve been part of community or religious organizations. And it is something that happens far too often. But here’s the difficult truth: it didn’t happen just because one person allegedly did something wrong. It very likely was made possible by a lack of structures, controls, policies, and procedures that should have been put in place. And structure that seemingly were not ensured to be in place by the board.
This is a governance issue.
I work with nonprofit boards across Canada, and I see this pattern more often than I’d like to. A board or leadership group places enormous trust in a single individual, typically the senior staff member, the treasurer, or the board chair. Often this someone has been around a long time, is deeply respected, or is seen as the one in charge. Unfortunately too much trust, such as in a situation like this, leads to hands-off oversight. Signs of this are in financial reports, that if they’re provided at all, are vague or rarely questioned. Controls like dual signing authority, independent reconciliation of accounts, or clear financial policies are missing or ignored.
The result? One person ends up with far too much power over money that’s supposed to serve a broader mission—and the board isn’t positioned to catch it.
Good governance doesn’t mean distrusting your staff or volunteers. It means building systems that don’t rely on blind trust to function. It means creating accountability structures that ensure no one, no matter how respected, is above the process.
Boards have fiduciary duties, legal responsibilities to ensure the organization is run well. Board members are trustees of assets that are not their own and must provide extensive oversight of these assets. Every board member is responsible for making sure the organization’s money is used properly, documented clearly, and protected from misuse. This includes:
Reviewing real financial statements regularly including income statements, balance sheets, and bank reconciliations
Asking questions when something in financial reporting looks unclear or inconsistent or when you just don’t understand
Making financial literacy a priority in board orientation and ongoing training
Putting proper controls in place such as:
Dualsigning authority for payments
Separation of duties between the person entering transactions and those reviewing them
Approving annual budgets at the board level and monitoring them through financial reporting
Ensuring effective financial policies are in place and followed
Having an audit or a review done each year by an accredited third party
If you’re on a board and these things aren’t happening, you need to speak up. It’s not about pointing fingers, it’s about recognizing that your organization might be vulnerable.
This story isn’t just a headline. It’s a reminder that our organizations need more than good intentions. They need good structure. Because when we give someone full control of the books and then look the other way, we’re not just trusting them, we’re setting them up to fail, and exposing the entire organization to serious risk. The likelihood that financial fraud will occur in an organization without proper controls is basically 100%
If your board needs help strengthening its financial oversight or figuring out where to begin, that’s exactly the kind of work I do. Let’s make sure your systems are strong enough to support the mission you’re working so hard to deliver.
Too Much Trust, Not Enough Oversight? A Governance Wake-Up Call
