SISO’s financial statement delayed

SISO’s board of directors has given itself until the end of December to file its overdue financial statement.

Settlement and Integration Services Organization (SISO) is a nonprofit corporation and is required to file a complete information return no later than six months after the end of its fiscal period, which is the end of March.

The organization’s website currently lists its annual reports up until 2008/2009. Board member Yaser Haddara said they expect to file the 2009/2010 return by the end of this month.

Haddara said he is aware that Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) expects a filing of a charity’s return six months after fiscal year end.

“For us, fiscal year end was March 31 so we had till Sept. 30. If you do not meet that date, ordinarily CRA allows 90 days for filing. So this gives us to end of December. We’re working very hard to meet that target,” Haddara said.

Revenue Canada said a consequence for a nonprofit not filing an annual information return within six months of the end of its fiscal period can be that its registration is revoked.

That can mean an organization may not qualify for exemption from income tax as a registered charity. Revenue Canada will not say if any organization is being investigated.

However Haddara said they are not being investigated by Revenue Canada.

SISO receives more than 80 per cent of its funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). However over the past few months CIC has said it will not renew funding to six of seven programs.

The decision, which came after an audit showed financial irregularities, has cost SISO around $12 million so far. The embattled settlement agency that began 17 years ago now has only one program left that is still funded by CIC.

The New Dawn Centre provides temporary accommodation and various orientation programs for refugees who have just arrived in Hamilton. That program receives $827,000 in CIC annual funding.