CFS officials paid themselves first, audit finds

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This article was published 06/11/2009 (5992 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THEY were supposed to be taking care of hundreds of abandoned and abused kids, but instead they paid themselves nearly $1.5 million in per diems, questionable travel and overtime expenses and even a free van.

More than a year after the spending controversy engulfed the Cree Nation Child and Family Caring Agency, a financial review released Thursday points to a litany of problematic practices and spending. The review looked at money paid to the agency’s seven-person board and its former chief executive officer, Linda Constant, over a four-year period.

Senior officials from the Northern Child Welfare Authority have launched an even deeper forensic audit of the entire agency.

"We are trying to put the integrity back into the aboriginal child welfare initiative," said Marie Lands, the northern authority’s chief executive officer.

Lands said the review and the fact that it was released publicly suggests a new era of accountability and openness in the troubled aboriginal child welfare system.

Constant has launched a wrongful-dismissal suit against the Northern Child Welfare Authority and her lawyer disputes many of the allegations in the review.

"We maintain that she has done everything transparently and with the authorization and with the board," said Mark Toews, Constant’s lawyer. "I’m concerned about the accuracy of some of the information presented to the audit."

Accountants from The Exchange Group, which performed the review, found problems with Cree Nation’s payouts to dozens of board members and:

"ö Constant, the former executive director who was fired last summer, was paid at least $807,000 over four years, including her salary, a van and a host of travel and other expenses.

That’s about $269,000 a year, far more than any other agency head makes and about four times her base salary.

"ö The accountants looked closely at the number of days Constant claimed she was travelling. In the 2007-08 fiscal year, she travelled 269 days even though there are normally only 250 working days in a year. That included nearly 200 days spent in Winnipeg and a week in Long Beach, Calif.

She also appears to have been paid twice for the same trip on two separate occasions, totalling $5,200.

"ö Constant was entitled to payments in lieu of overtime called earned days off. She got paid for 110 more days than she was entitled to.

"ö The $30,000 van Constant was given in lieu of salary increases was purchased before the board approved it. Furthermore, she was given a salary increase the following year.

All tallied, she earned the equivalent of a 17 per cent raise every year over three years.

"ö Board expenses over four years cost the agency $679,758.

That means the seven board members earned about $25,000 each a year, though some of that would have been for travel expenses incurred.

"ö In April 2008, just before the scandal erupted, board members earned nearly $14,000 for "years of service" payments that even Cree Nation’s lawyer warned would look bad if the public or the provincial government found out.

"ö When Constant started, about five of her family members were receiving payments for doing respite work, providing emergency foster homes or other child welfare services. By the time Constant was fired, 15 of her family members were receiving payments.

 

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

 

CREE NATION CHILD AND FAMILY CARING AGENCY

It’s a band-run child welfare agency based in The Pas. It serves kids in Winnipeg as well as on seven First Nation communities, including some of the province’s poorest ones, like Pukatawagan. It has about 92 employees and cares for about 553 kids.

WHAT WENT WRONG

In spring of 2008, the provincial Conservatives raised questions about Cree Nation, triggering a series of revelations that senior staff and board members spent heavily on per diems and travel, including a 2006 luxury getaway in Niagara Falls and a meeting in Kelowna, B.C.. And, CEO Linda Constant was given a $30,000 van instead of a raise. Allegations that Constant hired unqualified family members also surfaced.

Meanwhile, due to cashflow problems, staff travel was suspended even though social workers needed to visit kids in care in remote communities. Several staff members quit over several years, claiming their complaints had been ignored.

THE FIRST REVIEW

It was already quietly underway when the allegations surfaced. The review, done by the Northern Child Welfare Authority, was released in the summer of 2008. It confirmed a lot of the allegations and made a few more. It found that Constant used a business credit card for cash withdrawals and personal expenses. It also found files and paperwork documenting child welfare cases and foster families were incomplete or disorganized, that criminal-record and child abuse registry checks weren’t performed in many cases and that foster families weren’t getting regular inspections or visits from social workers. Constant was fired at about the same time the review was released. She is suing the Northern Authority for wrongful dismissal. The Authority is counter-suing to recoup some of the money paid to Constant. 

THE SECOND REVIEW

The province asked for a more detailed audit. It took a year and was released Thursday. It found many problems, everything from expensing the same trip twice to spending $35,000 on a board retreat to padding overtime.

WHAT’S NEXT

Yet another investigation has been launched — a forensic audit into all the agency’s finances conducted by Deloitte & Touche that should be done by January. And there is the civil case pending, when Constant and the Northern Authority will face off in court over the allegations and Constant’s termination.