The Kamloops Voters Society says it was caught off guard by a historical lack of keeping receipts at the Thompson-Nicola Regional District.
The society received data from 2014 related to spending under the former chief administrative officer Sukh Gill.
VISA statements from that year shows $101,540 was spent on the CAO’s credit card, and nearly 40 per cent of that, $38,840, was spent at restaurants and coffee shops.
“The most important thing that we found was just the process in how they documented this material. So they don’t actually include itemized receipts, they only include the VISA slips. Which masks a lot of what was being spent on,” voters society board member Randy Sunderman says.
“From our perspective, that’s unusual for government. Usually an itemized receipt is submitted when you’re making a claim to be paid for with public funds. And so that was one thing that we were not expecting and kind of caught us off guard.”
While the TNRD does not currently have a per diem system in place for staff, the voters society says the current limit for dinner charges for senior management in the provincial government is $28.50.
By comparison, in 2014, payments on the TNRD CAO’s credit card exceeded $28.50 per person 28 times, according to the society. It says a party of eight spent $476.40 in taxpayer dollars at the Copacabana Brazilian Steakhouse, a party of seven spent $474.88 at The Keg and a party of 13 spent $1,035.01 at the Boathouse Restaurant, among others.
Separately, the society also says there were seven high-cost meals in 2014 where specific guests were not identified in the VISA statements. Those include $5,955 in taxpayer dollars being spent at the Shark Club in Kamloops on Dec. 12, labelled as “meal portion.” There was also $5,792 spent at Araxi Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Whistler on Oct. 15. There were two trips to Goldies Flavours of India in Kamloops on Sep. 12 and Dec. 31, with bills totalling $1,177 and $1,170, labelled only as “management day” and “long term award.” There was also a trip to Salty’s Restaurant in Penticton on April 30, with a bill of $1,283 for 23 people, a trip to Terra Restaurant worth $855 for “board orientation” on Dec. 18, and a restaurant bill at Tobiano on August 20 worth $523 and labelled as “LEG meals.”
“In the year we looked at, 2014, we were unable to determine if any spending was being done on alcohol, for example. Because again, that doesn’t show. In a couple instances we saw receipts where that was outlined. But by and large, all the spending was just the VISA receipts,” Sunderman says.
While the society received spending data from 2014, Sunderman says it also requested spending from 2013 but said documents from that year have now been destroyed, as they only legally need to be kept for seven years. He says current TNRD staff provided the information from 2014 in a timely matter.
In a letter to the TNRD, the voters society says “the information above needs to be considered in establishing policies on reasonable per diems,” saying there are “plenty” of examples from other local governments.
“Further, TNRD needs to establish policies around staff and board attending events, including how the decisions are made on which staff and board members go, what the expected benefits of attending will be, and how that learning will be shared across the organization… Finally, clear rules need to be established around TNRD funding costly events that appear to have little connection to the on-going operation of the organization,” the letter continues.
Sunderman says the society looked into this after an extensive Kamloops This Week investigation earlier this year which showed that, between 2015 and 2020, more than $517,000 was spent on the former CAO’s credit card, before Gill and the TNRD suddenly parted ways in February of 2020. The report has now led to an independent audit by a fraud investigator with BDO Canada and an investigation by RCMP, which are both ongoing.
While the spending on the CAO credit card often covered tabs for other staff and elected board members, the spending was often at high-cost discretionary locations, and the investigation showed the TNRD did not have many checks and balances in place to ensure per diem limits and accountability compared to other jurisdictions.
In the weeks after the KTW investigation went public, the current TNRD board voted to do away with a policy that allowed directors and staff to expense up to two alcoholic drinks at events. The policy on alcohol allowances was brought in July of 2020, and prior to that year there were no limits to alcohol spending at events. The current board also approved the forensic audit to be done, which was later chosen to be BDO Canada, and the policy review committee has reconvened after not meeting for several years, and is working on creating a per-diem formula.
Last year, in the months after Gill’s departure, the TNRD says it changed a policy that previously allowed the CAO to make general business purchases, saying the CAO’s executive assistant now makes those purchases with approval from the CAO and the board.
Meanwhile, Gill will continue to be paid a full salary by the TNRD until Oct. 14, as part of a 20-month salary continuance included in his severance package. 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.
Gill has repeatedly not returned phone calls from NL News asking to comment or explain reports of past spending.
