The former auditor of the Port Arthur Polish Hall testified at a fraud trial that she wasn’t prepared for the job.
The trial of Krystyna Dolasinski continued Wednesday at the Thunder Bay Superior Court of Justice. Dolasinski faces fraud and theft exceeding $5,000 and falsifying documents between Dec. 1 2004 and Sept. 30, 2006.
The Crown called two more witnesses to the stand in an effort to paint a picture of the way the Polish Hall conducted its business. Both witnesses required the a translator.
Elizabeth Urbansaa-Szwajda served as the auditor for the Polish Hall and the Port Arthur Polish Alliance Branch 19. She took on the position because she said no one else would. She took on the responsibility despite having no prior training in accounting or finances.
“No one wanted to do this duty,” Urbansaa-Szwajda told the court through the translator.
“Nobody prepared me for the committee and that’s what others did in previous years.
She said she has a degree in civil engineering in Poland and studied to be a social worker in Canada.
She said being the auditor wasn’t that difficult of a job; she would only have to look over the books once a year, and an accountant would also look it over first anyway.
She would handwrite the reports in Polish first and then have her husband write it out on the computer.
The court heard that Urbansaa-Szwajda would meet with Dolasinski to go over the numbers before handing in the report to the executive committee. She said they were handwritten and appeared to be in Dolasinski’s handwriting but she admitted she couldn’t say for certain.
When the two finished going over the hall’s finances, she said they couldn’t find any discrepancies.
But the hall was having financial troubles.
“There was always more bills then money available,” she said. “For example, someone came to fix the bathroom and it had to be paid by cash and not through a cheque.”
Despite what has happened, Urbansaa-Szwajda said she still considers Dolasinski her best friend.
The hall’s Finance Secretary, Donna Wronowski, echoed some of Urbansaa-Szwajda’s testimony.
Wronowski, who has been a member since 1976, said proceeds from the weekly perogie sales, which averaged around $2,000 a week, would go into the hall’s finances. Usually 10 to 12 women work during the sales but more people were usually needed during big events such as Benny Birch’s Birthday.
She said people usually paid with cash because they didn’t have a debit machine while business paid with cheques.
Wronowski has known Dolasinski and her family for years and was on the executive board when the hall hired Dolasinski. Having a background in bookkeeping, Wronowski trained Dolasinski and said she was always available to help her but she never called with any problems.
She said the only problem that came up was during an executive board meeting in January 2006. The hall reported a loss of about $40,000. Wronowski asked if there was still money in their account, which she said, there was.
But after that meeting, Wronowski said they received an outstanding gas bill. A committee member set up the account in a way that the gas company would receive payment automatically.
Wronowski said that never happened before.
Judge Doug Shaw warned the jury to be weary of hearsay. He explained that hearsay can help shape the narrative of the story but doesn’t mean what was said is true.
The trial will resume on Thursday and is expected to last for two weeks.
Note to readers: This story was originally published on Wednesday, April 25. Due to a technical difficulty or human error the story was removed.
