CAM, Giving and Financial Integrity

[ken_sylvania]

I am still confused as to what possible benefit it was to CAM to have a wrong value placed on a donated item but I really do not have to know that. It appears you did the correct thing. And if I understood you correctly even the board had questions about this. Was it your actions that they were questioning or their employee's?

I have no idea how to answer your question. Not to divulge too many details, we donated multiple semi-trucks worth of goods in March/April of 2013. The following December I started getting emails asking me to provide documents that I didn't have, couldn't prove, nor had access to. All I was told is "our accountant needs to square the books."

Was it the board of your company that thought CAM's request was highly questionable, or CAM's board. I think you said "the board" was disturbed - I assume you meant the board of the company you worked for. Am I correct?

[ohio jones]

MBAs rule the roost.

J.M.

Wow, I rule the roost, I wish I knew which roost...

Maybe it’s DIY. Build your own roost?

What's the old saying about the Fox guarding the rooster house?

[steve-in-kville]

Was it the board of your company that thought CAM's request was highly questionable, or CAM's board. I think you said "the board" was disturbed - I assume you meant the board of the company you worked for. Am I correct?

My employer. Our CFO obviously was on the board back then. Since we didn't write the donation off, we couldn't prove anything ourselves, but CAM wanted us to document that it had a certain value that we couldn't prove.

As mentioned before, I was never contacted by CAM's accountants. It was always a go-between. To my immediate knowledge, we didn't donate to them after this incident in 2013.

[AnthonyMartin]

Wow, I rule the roost, I wish I knew which roost...

Maybe it’s DIY. Build your own roost?

What's the old saying about the Fox guarding the rooster house?

I'll let you know when it's built and forward the invitation to all roosters and hens

[ken_sylvania]

Was it the board of your company that thought CAM's request was highly questionable, or CAM's board. I think you said "the board" was disturbed - I assume you meant the board of the company you worked for. Am I correct?

My employer. Our CFO obviously was on the board back then. Since we didn't write the donation off, we couldn't prove anything ourselves, but CAM wanted us to document that it had a certain value that we couldn't prove.

As mentioned before, I was never contacted by CAM's accountants. It was always a go-between. To my immediate knowledge, we didn't donate to them after this incident in 2013.

Thanks.

I can think of at least two reasons why CAM might have wanted proof of value in order to square the books. One would be related to CAM's reporting of the value of donations. I am under the impression that CAM does track the value of donations at least on some level. I think it possible that this particular transaction may have been randomly selected during a routine audit, and that perhaps for some reason whoever assigned the donation a value in CAM's system may have failed to properly document how they arrived at that value. The other possible scenario would be that if the donated product was exported to another country, someone likely had to assign a value to the product for import/customs purposes for that other country. It would be quite possible that an auditor may have demanded proof of the value of the goods, in which case a statement from the supplier would have fit the bill.

And it might be that it was something altogether different. In any case, refusal to affirm something as fact that you were unsure about is the appropriate response.