DESERVE TO KNOW EXACTLY WHAT HAS GONE ON WITH THEIR BAND.

tigation,” Chief Barbara Cote and her two councillors said in a recent written statement to members.

Despite the continuing police probe, the person who received the largest portion of the $4.2 million in 2011-14 is running in next month’s council election and could become chief.

Dean Martin, son of former chief Paul Sam and former councillor Alice Sam (Paul Sam’s ex-wife), is one of the challengers going against the three incumbents, Cote, Tim Eugene and Rosalita Pascal.

Before the 2014 election, Martin, who boasted his parents deserved to be paid more than the prime minister because they served their “nation” longer than any Canadian leader, was chief executive officer of Kinbasket Development Corp., a band-owned company.

Martin, who could not be reached for comment, received just under $1.4 million between April, 2011, and November, 2014, according to the audit.

That amount, tax-free because Martin worked onreserve, is the equivalent of $2.5 million if he had paid income taxes, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Paul Sam, who was in his 80s and confined to a wheelchair, got $741,262, the equivalent of $1.3 million, while Alice Sam, who served as the band’s bookkeeper, got $690,481, or just over $1.2 million.

There was “general and widespread lack of supporting documentation,” Ernst & Young concluded in the July audit, noting inadequate proof that expenditures were reviewed to ascertain the business purpose of the transaction.

The audit, sent anonymously to Postmedia by a “concerned band member,” showed two private compan- Incumbent Shuswap First Nation Chief Barbara Cote helped wrest control of the band from the family of former chief Paul Sam.