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(DARREN RATHWELL / iNFOnews.ca)

The former top employee at the Thompson Nicola Regional District earned his final paycheque from the regional government in October 2021, almost two years after his sudden exit.

A severance agreement that lasted for 20 months from Feb. 14, 2020, came to a close just months before a forensic audit into regional district spending was complete. In 2021, former chief administrative officer Sukh Gill earned $129,827, including benefits, from the regional district.

Gill is one of the focal points of the forensic audit commissioned by the regional district.

A Kamloops This Week investigation revealed some of the extent of the questionable spending of tax dollars at the regional district, which included lavish dinners, gifts and alcohol spending.

Auditors presented a summary of their findings to the regional district board meeting Dec. 16, where it was revealed that the extent of funds mishandled included not just dinners, but also concerns over procurement policies and a lack of oversight.

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Gill departed from the regional district with several conditions attached to the agreement.

One of those conditions was that the regional district would "announce Mr. Gill's departure from the (regional district) as a retirement," a heavily redacted severance agreement reads.

From Feb. 14, 2020, taxpayers funded a nearly $10,000 per month salary until June 2021. His salary was then drastically reduced to less than $300 per month until the end of the 20-month continuance that reflected Gill's 20 years of employment with the regional government.

The agreement, obtained through a freedom of information request, included other conditions besides salary amount.

The regional district agreed to purchase a new Samsung S20 Plus smartphone as part of the severance and it agreed that Gill would keep a laptop he had in his possession, provided any confidential regional district information was removed. The regional district also agreed to pay Gill's Chartered Professional Accountant dues in March 2020, allowing him to keep his annual membership for another year.

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Gill, however, was required to notify the regional district if he gained employment where he earned more than $2,000 per month, in which case, the regional district would deduct half of every dollar above $2,000 from the continuance.

Regardless of the amount he earned with new employment, Gill was required to notify the regional district of any earnings he made "promptly," according to the agreement.

The regional district also paid $3,000 of Gill's legal fees following the severance package.

Through 2020, Gill was the highest paid employee at the regional district at $272,293, of which he managed to claim more than $5,000 in expenses in the month-and-a-half he was still employed. That's an expense total most employees and politicians did not reach over the course of the entire year.

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The salary continuance brought the entire 20 months of payments to $339,900, including benefits. Another $115,400 was paid in accrued vacation, bringing the total to $455,300 over 20 months.

It is unclear if Gill found new employment and whether that might have affected the amount eventually paid in the agreement.

Gill's lawyer, who was involved in the severance agreement, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Regional district staff are aiming to publish the full forensic audit report before the end of January 2022.

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