Spending by the former CAO of the Thompson Nicola Regional District was excessive in many cases, according to the new person in that role.
Scott Hildebrand was hired in August, and he says taxpayers can be assured that he’s not spending money the way his predecessor Sukh Gill was.
“Absolutely, I can assure the public on that. And I can tell you I just have a different approach for spending, and have a total respect for the taxpayer dollar. You look at each and every expense and you ask yourself if this is appropriate. And I think that’s what I need to instill in this organization. And from what I’ve seen, this management team and the entire team are very good, and we’ll continue to move forward.”
His comments came after an in-depth report by Kamloops This Week, showing Gill spent more than half a million dollars of taxpayer money in his last five years, on his work credit card. Much of that story can be found here.
Hildebrand says new checks and balances are now in place.
“For example, CAO expenses are signed off by the chair, and that’s how it should be, versus the (Chief Financial Officer) signing off on them. Hospitality policy limiting alcohol to two drinks per board events. Alcohol can no longer be expensed by any staff including myself… We’ve created a catering list with an appropriate list between service providers.”
Gill had a credit card limit of $30,000 when he was in the top job, and that was changed to $5,000 after he was let, and replaced in the interim by Randy Diehl.
Hildebrand says since he took over in August, his credit card limit has been in line with Diehl’s.
“I would need to dig into the total amount now and exactly what the maximums are, but I know mine is very limited as well. I believe it’s $5,000 dollars as well. So there is no credit cards that have the types of maximum that maybe we had in the past. So we need to continue to be transparent.”
Between 2015 and 2020, the story by Kamloops This Week says Gill spent more than $517,000 on his company credit card. That includes more than $370,000 at luxury hotels and restaurants, wineries, golf courses and other discretionary, often high-price locations. Most of that spending was outside of standard work hours.
TNRD board chair Ken Gillis says a lack of policy and oversight played a major role in spending largesse that continued for years.
Many of the people who would have been in a position to raise red flags about expenditures reported directly to Gill. But Gillis says reporting structures have since been changed.
“When Mr. Gill’s expenses were reviewed, we found that there was no examples that you could say had gone way outside policy. Maybe some of them were borderline. The policy was certainly stretched to its very limits I would agree. But there was nothing that could be shown to be a breach,” Gillis says.
“Until I guess Mr. Gill left, the CAO and anyone I suppose else – but the CAO is the only one I know of who was doing it – could provide a VISA receipt. But the VISA receipt would not be backed up by an invoice of precisely what it was meant to pay for. That is no longer the practice. Everything has to be backed up with an invoice now.”
After 20 years working at the TNRD, Gill suddenly left the TNRD on Feb. 14, 2020, with a payout worth more than half a million dollars. Part of his termination was a legal agreement for the regional district to call it a “retirement.”
NL News reached out to Gill this week about his spending of taxpayer dollars and has not gotten a call back.
– with files from Brett Mineer