Marble countertops from RRC building went into Forsyth’s home, says CTF

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This article was published 28/10/2014 (4135 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former Red River College president Stephanie Forsyth is being called out onto the carpet by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) over surplus marble kitchen countertops that were installed in her home.

The taxpayer watchdog released documents this morning indicating that Forsyth received the marble marked for disposal from the college’s Patterson GlobalFoods Institute (PGI) building, and had the stone installed in her former Wellington Crescent home.

This afternoon, RRC issued a statement in which it said only that newly-appointed board of governors chair Lloyd Schreyer will review the matter “in order to make recommendations regarding appropriate actions based on the findings of the investigation.”

The house has now been sold and Forsyth has moved away from the city.

“If the former president had taken a few scraps of old plywood, no one would care,” CTF prairie director Colin Craig said in a statement. “But we’re talking about expensive marble and photos suggest it could be a sizeable amount. The college should have sold off the material.”

The CTF obtained emails regarding the transfer of goods through a freedom of information request. Correspondence between top-level RRC staff shows that the school was aware of the marble countertop matter months ago.

“The simple fact is that marble is in SF’s (Stephanie Forsyth) house and a certain quantity came from PGI. Even if it was marked for disposal it shows poor judgement (sic) at best, dishonesty at worst,” acting RRC president David Rew wrote in one of the emails.

RRC’s asset disposal and ethics policies, which are available online, indicate that surplus property should be sold off and employees should first consider the public response if “this action attracted media attention.” According to the federation, the college is unsure of the exact volume of marble installed and whether or not college policies were broken.

Forsyth, who has come under scrutiny for her spending habits as the RRC president, resigned in September due to personal reasons.

“First the former president expensed golf shoes and her driver’s license, then there was the bill for wedding-related expenses and now we’re talking about her taking home expensive marble,” Craig added in the release. “The college needs to come clean on what’s going on. We’re talking about taxpayer dollars and student fees.”