The former CAO of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District who suddenly departed six weeks into 2020 charged taxpayers with $5,000 in expenses on his company credit card last year.
According to the 2020 Statement of Financial Information report, Sukh Gill received his full salary for the calendar year as part of his severance agreement, while expensing $5,051 to taxpayers.
When asked by NL News, the TNRD showed the items billed by Gill dated as far back as Nov. 15, 2019, meaning the $5,051 covered three months of expenses.
Those included six trips to Nandi’s Flavours of India in November and December, totalling $239.86. There were 21 other restaurant or coffee shop visits, totalling $387.53. Those other receipts ranged from spending $4.17 at Starbucks to $63.61 at Earl’s Restaurant. Gill also expensed $40.29 to taxpayers at a TNRD board Christmas buffet luncheon on Dec. 12, 2019.
Other credit card purchases by Gill also included some costs for general business. Those included $1,230.29 spent at the Microsoft Store, which was believed to be for IT Software for the regional district. Gill also paid for the TNRD’s annual dues for the UBCM ($195) and Civic Info BC ($350).
Further, Gill also expensed $901.57 at the Miyako Hotel in Japan in December of 2019, as accommodation during the Kamloops sister city visit to Uji, Japan. His personal annual membership with the Chartered Professional Accountants of BC was invoiced on his credit card on Feb. 28, 2020 – two weeks after he departed – which was worth $950. Gill also expensed an accounting ethics course he took in December of 2019, worth $229.
In total, more than $517,000 was spent on Gill’s credit card between 2015 and 2020, as outlined by an investigation by Kamloops This Week, with much of the spending at high-cost discretionary locations, like hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, wineries and golf courses. The investigation by KTW has now led to an independent forensic audit by a fraud investigator, which will be done this summer. Meanwhile, the RCMP Financial Integrity Unit is also doing its own investigation into potential criminality at the TNRD, which is still ongoing.
While Gill and the TNRD suddenly parted ways on Feb. 14, 2020, Gill was paid his full salary for all of 2020 as part of his 20-month salary continuance. That made Gill the highest-paid employee in the regional district last year, collecting $272,293. As part of his severance, he will continue to be paid by the TNRD until Oct. 14 of this year. Including his salary continuance, benefits, a new cell phone, a laptop and almost 140 days of banked vacation days that were paid out, Gill’s severance package was worth more than $520,000. Legally, the TNRD is forced to call it a “retirement” and cannot say why Gill was forced to leave.
Meanwhile, the TNRD also paid Randy Diehl $109,129 to work as the interim CAO for six months, from February to August, at which point Scott Hildebrand took over the CAO job on a permanent basis. Hildebrand’s salary paid for 4.5 months in 2020 did not show up in the SOFI report, which suggests it did not exceed $75,000 in that time. Any employee earning more than $75,000 is required to have their name and total income in the report, as laid out in the province’s Financial Information Act.
Apart from Gill, the next-highest-paid employees at the regional district in 2020 were finance director Doug Rae ($156,361) and corporate services and human resources director Debbie Sell ($152,278).
In total, the TNRD had 39 employees who earned at least $75,000 last year, and for all of its employees it paid $9,221,813 in wages, as well as $131,049 in expenses. Salaries were slightly higher than in 2019 when regional district employees made a combined $8,897,841, while expenses were more than cut in half during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to 2019, when staff expensed a combined $245,523 while doing more regular business.
Meanwhile, the 26 board of directors were paid a combined $607,700 in wages last year, and expensed $85,706. By comparison, in 2019, board members were paid a combined $607,276, and expensed more than double the amount, at $191,756.
The highest-paid director last year was board chair Ken Gillis, who earned $49,854, followed by vice chair Bill Kershaw who earned $35,503.
