Food expenses filed for events in which meals were included, liquor expenses submitted without any supporting bills and a lawyer paid for work that could've been done for almost free, are just a few of the problems uncovered by an audit of the RM of La Broquerie.
In a report released Thursday, auditor general Carol Bellringer also found the rural municipal government did not have appropriate internal controls for its day-to-day operations and was at times at odds with the Municipal Act, the legislation that lays out how local governments are to do business.
Bellringer said the special audit, covering the period January 2003 to December 2006, will likely be a blueprint for how other municipalities, large and small, govern themselves and the people they represent.
She said the underlying rule is that the public must have confidence in the system.
That hasn't always been the case in La Broquerie, which is east of Winnipeg and one of the province's fastest growing municipalities.
Bellringer's audit was sparked by a 2005 incident in which then-reeve Ken Mantie was locked out of council chambers during a dispute over why a local hotel was getting snow removed from its parking lots by the RM free-of-charge.
Bellringer found the RM did provide free snow clearing to a local hotel in which the RM's former chief administrative officer and two councillors had a financial interest. The audit also found no evidence the former CAO and the councillors influenced the decision to provide free snow clearing.
However, it did find him in a perceived conflict of interest when the RM built and paid for a road to property owned by him and his brothers.
"Full disclosure and knowledge of the transactions would have provided the public with the necessary information about the terms of the agreement," the audit report said.
Former CAO Larry Tetrault was unavailable for comment. He is now the CAO in the RM of Springfield. He is not named in the audit.
Mantie said the audit showed the concerns he raised were valid.
"I hope this new council makes some rapid changes so these things don't happen again," he said.
In a statement, new Reeve Marielle Wiebe said the RM has already adopted new policies and procedures to address the issues identified in the audit.
In particular, the audit found:
l In 2005, the RM hired a lawyer to prepare procedural and organizational by-laws at a cost of $33,700 when the same material could have been found in a government manual at minimal cost.
l In 2002, the total cost of the RM Christmas party held at a local hotel was $3,708, which included a liquor bill of more than $1,700 before taxes. The same calendar year the RM incurred an operating deficit of more than $400,000.
l The audit identified $5,700 in liquor charges to the La Broquerie Hotel over the entire period of the audit, but those charges could not be quantified because of a lack of support documentation.
l In the same period, meal and entertainment expenses to the La Broquerie Hotel totalled $35,768. The audit found only 42 per cent of the payments made to the hotel had adequate support.
l The RM did not seek bids for office cleaning before 2007 and instead paid $15,312 annually to the assistant CAO. That cost has now been cut almost in half with recent changes.
l The former CAO left the RM in 2006 and was paid $190,479 in a negotiated settlement, but the full amount was not disclosed. The audit found $42,000 was omitted.
bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca
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