Councillors close the book on all 11 City of Charlottetown financial issues cited in BDO report

CBC
·3 min read
'Tonight was checking off a couple boxes so we can move on,' Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown said of council voting to close an investigation into financial concerns raised in a forensic audit by BDO last year. (Tony Davis/CBC - image credit)
'Tonight was checking off a couple boxes so we can move on,' Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown said of council voting to close an investigation into financial concerns raised in a forensic audit by BDO last year. (Tony Davis/CBC - image credit)

Charlottetown's city councillors have once again voted to look no further into financial concerns raised by a forensic auditing team last year.

The City of Charlottetown commissioned accounting firm BDO to look into allegations that were brought forward in January 2019 by former deputy chief administrative officer Scott Messervey.

BDO's report highlighted 11 issues that included an employee buying car parts with city funds and reselling them, someone else regularly expensing meals without receipts, and someone buying gift cards with no record of how they were distributed.

On Wednesday night, after a two-hour discussion behind closed doors, councillors voted 7-1 to conclude the investigation and consider all of the 11 matters closed.

"We have to move forward, and councillors said that over and over during public discussions on this issue," Mayor Philip Brown said after the vote.

"Lessons have been learned, and those lessons will be used as a template going forward."

Charlottetown Coun. Terry Bernard, who is the finance chairman, says the city of Charlottetown is OK until the end of May. He said if the closures caused by COVID-19 go beyond that , the city may have to take another look at its budget.
Charlottetown Coun. Terry Bernard, who is the finance chairman, says the city of Charlottetown is OK until the end of May. He said if the closures caused by COVID-19 go beyond that , the city may have to take another look at its budget.

Financial allegations contained in BDO's report to the City of Charlottetown included the reselling of city-purchased car parts, the expensing of meals without receipts, and gift card purchases not accompanied by notes about how they were being distributed. (Shane Ross/CBC)

Before voting on the resolution, to consider all 11 items in the BDO report having been investigated and the matter closed, councillors first rescinded their decision in April to close the door on only nine of the 11 allegations.

Tweel lone vote against resolution

Mitch Tweel was the sole councillor to vote against Wednesday's resolution. He repeated his assertion from April that the city should not make its own determination on the investigation.

'I don't believe that we should be involved with investigating ourselves,' says Charlottetown Coun. Mitch Tweel, who was the lone councillor to vote against closing the investigation into financial allegation against the city.
'I don't believe that we should be involved with investigating ourselves,' says Charlottetown Coun. Mitch Tweel, who was the lone councillor to vote against closing the investigation into financial allegation against the city.

'I don't believe that we should be involved with investigating ourselves,' said Charlottetown Coun. Mitch Tweel, who was the lone councillor to vote against closing the investigation. (Tony Davis/CBC)

"From a philosophical point of view, I don't believe that we should be involved with investigating ourselves," said Tweel.

"I think that should've been done by an outside agency where it's truly impartial and independent and objective."

In April, the city estimated the cost of the BDO report at $290,159, plus another $80,000 in related legal fees.

I'm moving on and I think council's moving on because we have to start conducting ourselves in a way that we can address these issues. — Mayor Philip Brown

Brown said councillors Bob Doiron and Terry Bernard did not vote on the resolution Wednesday because they were implicated in some of the allegations.

Along with Tweel, Doiron voted against the original resolution in April to consider nine of the issues raised closed.

Mayor cites need to move on

The mayor said council has learned lessons from the investigation, adding that councillors now need to turn their attention to addressing issues like climate change, the housing crisis and public transit.

He did not address why a third-party investigation into the financial issues raised by the BDO report was not done.

"I'm moving on and I think council's moving on because we have to start conducting ourselves in a way that we can address these issues," he said.

"We have some priorities that I'm focused on. Tonight was checking off a couple boxes so we can move on."