‘Significant changes’ coming to city hall: auditor general
March 21, 2011 by admin
Filed under Cash Advances
There are “significant changes” coming to city
hall according to HRMs auditor general.
Larry Munroe spoke to the media for the first time Friday
regarding his investigation into cash advances and loans to concert promoters
that go back to 2008.
When the matter was brought to him on March 4th,
the only issue at that point was that Deputy CAO Wayne Anstey authorized a
$400,000 cash advance from the Metro Centre’s account to Power
Promotional Events for the concerts on the Common in the summer of 2010. But
right away the red flags started to fly and Munroe found loans to promoters
going back to 2008.
“That was of great concern to us to understand the
basis of those cash advances so the thing just really started to tumble after
that,” Munroe said.
He’ll also be looking into allegations there was
another cash advance of $300,000 from 2009 that was not repaid.
“I’m aware of that concern and we’re
going to have a look and see if that’s the case.”
There’s also the fact Mayor Peter Kelly signed a
legally-vetted contract that allowed funds from advance ticket sales to flow to
the promoter. While it doesn’t involve public funds, it was against HRM
policy.
Kelly’s comments about what knew about the $400,000
cash advance changed over the last week and Munroe confirmed he will be
investigating the mayor’s role in this fiasco.
Munroe is also examining why it took so long for this
matter to come to light since Power Promotional Events went bankrupt in Oct.
and Anstey would have known the loan would not be repaid.
“I do know the answer to that and that will be
something that will be part of the public document.”
Anstey told Cathie O’Toole, director of finance, two
weeks ago about the cash advance. Munroe said O’Toole did the right thing
by taking the matter directly to his office.
“We need to understand everyone’s conduct with
respect to this particular matter so we can improve HRM’s policies and
systems where they seem to need some level of improvement so these types of
transactions don’t ever take place again,” Munroe said.
Council and the public will see the report around the same
time when it is finished and Munroe said there will be several recommendations
for improvements.
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