The Canadian Taxpayers Federation hopes Thompson Rivers University has better control of purse strings than the Thompson-Nicola Regional District when it comes to employing Sukh Gill.

Gill, the former CAO of the regional district at the centre of spending concerns when he held that position, is the chair of TRU’s finance committee, the audit committee and is on the advisory committee for investments.

B.C. director of the CTF Kris Sims tells NL News the university better make sure its policies for spending are very stringent for board members.

“If people are accountable, and they have to post their expenses, and they have to be answerable to somebody other than themselves when it comes to spending those taxpayers’ money, and in this case student tuitions funds and that sort of thing, then they’re usually pretty careful. The key here is oversight. The key here is auditing,” Sims says.

“We need to also remind ourselves that not all of that is tuition money. A lot of taxpayer money goes to subsidize post-secondary, university education. And so we certainly hope that better purse strings are there at the university level than they were at the regional district. They better be concerned.”

Last week, Kamloops This Week reported that Gill spent more than $517,000 in taxpayer money on his company credit card in his last five years with the TNRD, before being let go.

The new CAO of the TNRD, Scott Hildebrand, has given assurance to taxpayers that excessive spending of taxpayer money has now stopped. Hildebrand says CAO expenses now need to be signed off on by the board chair and vice chair, that alcohol can no longer be expensed by staff members and that the regional district now has an “appropriate list” of service providers for catering. He also says his company credit card, to use for business expenses, is now $5,000, compared to $30,000 when Gill had it.

Gill has not returned a call when NL News tried to reach him for an interview.