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(DARREN RATHWELL / iNFOnews.ca)

Thompson Nicola Regional District officials believe they are setting an example for other local governments to follow as they take advice from auditors that scrutinized five years of financial data.

"I think when we're finished, we will be the flagship to follow for local governments all over the province," board chair Ken Gillis said.

He added, however, that he does not know if there are others that have cause to go through the thorough auditing process that's been done there.

"I have no information whatsoever about any other local government, municipal or regional, that is going through anything close to what we went through," he said. "I don't know if there are other local governments that need to have as comprehensive of a review as we have undergone."

After the departure of the former top employee at the regional district, chief administrative officer Sukh Gill, a Kamloops This Week investigation revealed to the public a pattern of excessive spending on dinners, alcohol and gifts, all charged to corporate credit cards and paid for by taxpayers.

In the fallout, the regional district contracted BDO Canada LLP to conduct a forensic audit of its spending practices, intended to investigate a five year span of financial information.

BDO Canada LLP auditors presented a summary of their findings this week, after they pored over government financials and conducted interviews in an investigation that began in May.

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The investigation went months beyond its original intention. It is expected to go above the $75,000 it was budgeted for, and the final published report will not be available until 2022, despite earlier promises that it would be released at the time of the presentation.

"I feel very strongly that between what we have done and what we're going to do, there's no chance that anything like this is going to happen again," Gillis said. "I can tell you we intend to implement all the recommendations that flow from the forensic audit."

The auditor's findings revealed policy shortcomings that the board intends to implement, Gillis said.

"I'm looking forward to the time we can forward further information," Gillis said. "We have been significantly curtailed by the advice of our lawyers because (the report) has to undergo a very careful legal review."

He added that lawyers for the regional district are ensuring privacy laws are not breached by the release of the full report, and it is aimed for release before the end of January 2022.

Investigators conducted more than 20 interviews during the investigation. They also reviewed 45,000 emails and 12,000 documents at the regional district, along with investigating hundreds of expense and remuneration reports.

There were inconsistencies and incomplete information "all over the place" related to invoices for Gill's expenses, Simon Padgett, BDO Canada director of forensic disputes and investigations, said at the Dec. 16 board meeting.

After investigating the five years of materials, Padgett described the regional district as having an "inappropriate culture of spending."

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Gillis said the board now has a policy that either the board chair or the vice-chair must sign off on any expenses reported by the chief administrative officer.

Gillis gave other examples of policies that have either been implemented, or are expected to be implemented in the future, that fall in line with recommendations the auditors put forth following the investigation. He said the regional district will also revisit some of the policies implemented before the audit report was completed, to ensure they fall in line with BDO's recommendations, once those are "fully fleshed out" in the upcoming full report.

Across regional district spending in a five-year period, investigators reviewed more than $750,000 in spending that received reimbursements. Nearly $200,000 of that spending did not have itemized receipts. The regional district now has more stringent rules on itemization, Gillis said, but the policy has not yet been formalized.

Padgett recommended the regional district's own audit committee become more involved, which is something the board is looking to implement in the near future, Gillis said.

In recent months, the regional district also changed some of its expense policies as they relate to employee gifts and alcohol spending. Now, alcohol is not permitted to be included on regional district expenses, while gifts for employees are limited to $250 and for volunteers they are capped at $50. Gillis added that gifts must be unique to, or representative of, the regional district.

Now that the audit is nearing its end, the national union representative for regional district employees said the union members are relieved to see the changes.

"It was a really difficult time for them to deal with this, but they feel the board took their concerns seriously," Harry Nott, Canadian Union of Public Employees 900 national representative, said.

Nott said he's heard very positive feedback from his members as the audit comes to a close.

Well before the audit, and before Gill had left, he said the tensions were much higher for employees that had concerns about the spending culture at the regional district.

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"It was scary times for them because they were raising concerns about the person who had the ultimate authority to fire them," Nott said, referring to Gill.

Nott noted that there are, however, regional district employees that are members of the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union rather than his union, CUPE 900.

"Our union staff are a great group," Scott Hildebrand said. "I think the culture here has certainly changed, and that started with Randy Diehl coming in for the interim position, and I've continued with that tone after I came onboard."

Current chief administrative officer Hildebrand told iNFOnews.ca that he is disappointed the full report could not be released for the public yesterday, which was the intention from the beginning.

He added, however, that forensic audits are generally not written for the public to view, so privacy concerns are not taken into account by the auditors as they prepare their findings.

Because of this, the public will have to wait until 2022 to see those results, and while Hildebrand hopes lawyers will have the final copy prepared for release before the end of January, he could not provide an exact date.

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