Councillor wants community club audited amid leadership turmoil, allegations of mismanagement By: Malak Abas Posted: 6:45 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 29, 2024 Last Modified: 8:49 AM CDT Thursday, May. 30, 2024 Updates

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A Winnipeg councillor is calling for an audit of a city-funded community centre following allegations of financial and employee mismanagement, the Free Press has learned.

In a letter to the South Winnipeg Community Centre’s board April 24, Coun. Markus Chambers requests the board agree to an independent audit of its 666 Silverstone Ave. location amid “growing whispers and rumblings regarding potential irregularities in financial disclosure to the board and possible human resource issues leading to operational inefficiencies and resulting in multiple union grievances.”

“As a member of the community deeply invested in the well-being and transparency of our facilities, I feel it is imperative that we address these concerns promptly and thoroughly,” reads Chambers’ letter, which is cc’d to Janice Lukes, councillor for Waverley West.

Chambers, who is the city’s deputy mayor and represents the adjacent St. Norbert-Seine River ward, said several members of the community centre’s board reached out to him in early April with concerns about Paramjit Shahi’s management of the facility.

“Basically, they had asked me to go and kind of clean up the mess,” he told the Free Press Wednesday.

38508_Richmond site audit

 

Those concerns included renovation projects that were stalled for months, the scheduling and training of staff and issues regarding “cash management.”

“All of the checks and balances that were mandated by the board for the executive director to implement… had not been implemented,” Chambers said.

In a statement to the Free Press, South Winnipeg Community Centre president Masroor Khan said the volunteer-run board does not manage day-to-day operations, but had launched an internal investigation on the operations of the Silverstone community centre before Chambers sent the letter.

At the outset of that investigation, the general manager was immediately placed on administrative leave, and he resigned on May 13.

“It has been determined that the former general manager of SWCC failed to report many significant operational concerns to the board,” Khan said in an email.

“The SWCC board is consulting with various stakeholders such as the (General Council of Winnipeg Community Centres), City of Winnipeg and a professional firm to review and implement improved controls for the operation of SWCC. The board has also been in discussions with the union that represents SWCC staff members to address human resources concerns.”

Shahi declined a Free Press request for comment and offered no reason for his resignation.

He was unsuccessful as the Progressive Conservative candidate in Fort Richmond in last October’s provincial election, losing the seat that had been held by former Tory cabinet minister Sarah Guillemard to Jennifer Chen of the NDP.

Along with the Silverstone location, SWCC also operates its Waverley Site facility at 1885 Chancellor Dr.

Both receive provincial and municipal funding.

SWCC receives municipal funds via three grant programs, the city’s land dedication reserve and a ward allowance — a total of $327,885 in 2023.

The Chancellor Drive site was listed by the city Tuesday as one of 11 community centres set to receive grant funding for renovations.

In 2023 and 2024, SWCC received just over $26,000 and $20,000, respectively, through the Manitoba government’s Green Team program, which provides funding for community projects.

In 2023-24, the provincial Building Sustainable Communities program approved spending of up to $110,412 for “facility health and safety upgrades” at the Silverstone facility.

Chambers said the decision to proceed with an audit is, ultimately, up to the board, but if complaints persist, funding from the city can be withheld until the issues are resolved.

Lukes said she never directly heard any complaints about financial mismanagement, but knew there was friction between the board and Shahi.

“We did have, I’d say complaints, about how certain things were being run, how things were being organized, but I attributed that to a transition change… in the beginning,” she said.

Other problems, such as the delay in fixing broken washrooms because of problems with a contractor exacerbated concerns, she said.

Lukes said it was “good” to hear Shahi had resigned.

“I think the board needs a different level of expertise running the community centre, and those changes are being made,” she said.

Shahi, new board members installed in 2021

Former and current staff say the state of the community centre has deteriorated since Shahi and a new board of directors were installed in 2021.

Murray Harding had been the general manager of the community centre for 25 years.

He said Shahi became board president at the September 2021 annual general meeting. Many long-standing members were voted out and replaced with people known to Shahi at that meeting, in what Harding said he considered a hostile takeover of the board.

Others resigned later, he said.

“For most community centres, when an AGM takes place, you’re looking at struggling to get your minimum of 20 people to vote,” Harding said.

”He had 400-plus people in the parking lot at the Waverley West site.”

There was soon a discrepancy between how the new board and management wanted to run the centre, and what the staff and community wanted, Harding said, adding issues ranged from attempts to replace long-running youth programs to incidents of Shahi, who took over management responsibilities, intimidating staff.

“For somebody without any knowledge about how community centres operate, he was doing a complete turnaround,” Harding said.

“They were very close. Every time I had a meeting with Paramjit (Shahi), Janice (Lukes) was in attendance.”–GM Murray Harding

In February 2022, Harding went on stress leave. A month later, he said medical and pension benefits provided to him, as general manager, and several other staff, had been eliminated.

“Nobody was made aware of it, and (Shahi) didn’t notify after it was passed. They didn’t notify at any time,” he said.

The resignations continued and, in early August 2022, he told the board he would retire, after decades at the community centre.

He said he wasn’t surprised to learn concerned board members reached out to Chambers, rather than Lukes.

“They were very close. Every time I had a meeting with Paramjit (Shahi), Janice (Lukes) was in attendance,” he said.

Lukes said Chambers was approached because he represents the ward that the Silverstone centre is in, and she was a regular attendee at meetings because Shahi had “zero experience.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca