Is it too much to ask the Festival of Friends to provide the City of Hamilton with an audited statement in exchange for a municipal grant of $85,271?
We don’t think so.
Currently, the 37-year-old festival is the exception, rather than the rule, when it comes to reporting its finances to the city in exchange for the a cultural grant.
Every other cultural group asking for money from the city provides an audited financial statement with its request.
But rather than being apologetic about this oversight, Festival of Friends Loren Liebermann was more indignant when queried about the lack of an audited financial statement.
Liebermann said a financial audit would be too expensive  — about $12,000 for the non-profit organization.
He suggested if council demanded a financial audit of the Festival of Friends, it would have to pay for one by increasing its $85,000 donation.
A cheeky response if we ever heard one.
No one is questioning the cultural and entertainment value the Festival of Friends provides to the city.
For many residents, the free festival is a highlight of the summer. It would be hard to imagine a summer in Hamilton, without the three-day festival providing a wide range of musical entertainment for all ages.
Still, the popularity of the Festival of Friends doesn’t give it the right to follow the beat of a different drummer when it comes to asking for financial assistance from Hamilton taxpayers.
Other cultural agencies and boards manage to find the financial wherewithal to provide an audited statement, why can’t the Festival of Friends?
We have no reason to suspect any of the finances of the Festival of Friends has been mishandled. We are not suggesting that.
However, we do not believe city council would be off-base in making a financial audit a condition upon receiving a cultural grant. As west Mountain Coun. Terry Whitehead correctly commented: “One way to assure accountability is audited statements.”
The $12,000 expense for a financial statement would represent only about 2.5 per cent of the festival’s reported expenses last year. Surely that can be found in the existing budget.
Who knows, maybe the Festival of Friends could find a friendly accountant who would donate his or her financial expertise as an in-kind service?