Halifax Pride is grateful for the dedicated work of the numerous police personnel at Halifax Regional Police, specifically the HRP/RCMP Integrated High Risk Enforcement Action Team (HEAT), that lead to the apprehension of Mr. Scullino on November 2, 2016. The Society has continued to move forward since the incident in 2013 however we are pleased that our community may be able to find closure in light of recent events.
Mr. Scullino allegedly misappropriated event revenue following the completion of the 2013 festival. This revenue was budgeted to fund festival operations, and programs and services for the LGBT2Q+ community in Halifax and Nova Scotia.
Following the 2013 incident, Halifax Pride provided information to our community, partners and media to ensure transparency and maintain accountability. In the time since the Society has reported the missing funds, we have developed and strengthened accountability and control policies regarding festival revenue. All financial processes and activity have been restructured to ensure this situation could never happen again. These systems include stricter monitoring of all automated collection processes and an external bookkeeper to manage our accounts, transactions, and financial assets.
Halifax Pride will continue to work with the Halifax Regional Police on this matter as it goes through the judicial system. As our organization and festival continues to grow, we will constantly strive to improve our processes and systems to ensure accountability to our community.
