Luxurious Trips, Lavish Spending Alleged By BC Legislature Report

[DonLever]

From CBC:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/darryl-plecas-bc-legislature-1.4986402

 

Two senior B.C. Legislature officials who were suspended two months ago are being investigated for allegedly fraudulent and flagrant overspending, "lavish" trips overseas, inappropriate expense claims, cash payouts and misappropriating liquor from the legislature, according to Speaker of the House Darryl Plecas. 

 

Plecas' 76-page report was released Monday after it was reviewed by members of the legislature's management committee.

The report says that, based on what he had seen and heard, Plecas believed there was a real possibility crimes may have been committed and he felt obligated to contact the RCMP. The committee voted to release the report Monday and agreed to launch an audit of legislature finances, conduct a workplace review and submit that report to an auditor from outside of B.C.

 

Clerk of the House Craig James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz were both suspended Nov. 20 and escorted out of the legislature by police. They have not been charged with any crime, and have denied all wrongdoing.

 

Shortly before the report was released to the media, Allen Mullen, adviser to Plecas, told reporters the allegations involve "millions of dollars."

"I would suggest what's contained in this report is improper, at times against policy," said Mullen.

"It's not speculation, it's not made up, it's not opinion. It is fact and it is backed up by documents, receipts, letters and proof."

 

'False and untrue'

James and Lenz said in a statement they were "shocked."

"Prior to the release of these allegations this afternoon, no one shared them with us, no one told us what we are being accused of and no one gave us any chance to respond," it read in part.

"The Speaker has now compounded the harm to us and our families by preparing a report in secret, without any input from us, and recommended that it be released to the public to further blacken our reputations. We are only now able to read the allegations for the first time and we are confident that time will show that they are completely false and untrue."

 

The statement said that releasing the report without providing a chance for them to respond was "contrary to how our public institutions should treat people."

It said the pair would issue a more detailed response after going through the list of allegations.

Mike Farnworth, B.C.'s solicitor general, said he was shocked and saddened to read the allegations in the report, calling them "unacceptable."

"I think the general public would look at it and say, 'That's just wrong,' " he said.

 

'Flagrant' overspending

The report, which includes details of trips and conversations, as well as scanned receipts and tables of expenses, alleges overspending and misappropriation of funds in a number of areas, including:

• "Flagrant overspending on luxurious trips" with "questionable" business rationales, and taking overnight trips at the legislature's expense, for what appear to be "other than legitimate work purposes."
• Expensing personal purchases to the legislature, totalling tens of thousands of dollars over a period of less than two years.
• "Inappropriate" cash payouts in lieu of vacation, totalling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Misappropriation of alcohol and electronic equipment.
• Potentially "retributive or otherwise unjustified" termination of employees.

The report also alleges that steps were taken to conceal information that could have indicated improperly claimed expenditures, and that attempts were made to access benefits in the millions of dollars.

 

Surprised at 'how little we were doing'

The report describes a 2018 trip to the U.K., where Plecas was travelling with James and Lenz. The travellers stayed in luxury hotels and flew business class, the report says. The three were travelling for a series of introductory meetings, which Plecas said "did not seem to me to be the kind of conversation that required an in-person meeting."

"Throughout the trip, I was very surprised at how luxuriously we were travelling and how little we were doing for a work trip," wrote Plecas, who said he was new to the job and didn't want to alienate the pair.

He said the pair claimed per diems for meals that were provided and not paid for out of pocket, and charged souvenirs to taxpayers. The report also alleges $1,100 was expensed for a suit, which Lenz said was a "uniform" for work. 

 

One part of the report describes the purchase of a wood splitter for $3,200, to prepare for a crisis scenario in which a tree fell on the legislature grounds. However the wood splitter was delivered to James's home, where Lenz and James used it to split firewood, the report says.

The report also alleges that James instructed three Legislative employees to load alcohol leftover from an event into his truck, and details that $5,000 dollars worth of digital subscriptions to magazines like Arizona Highways and Electric Bike Action were expensed.

[Gnarcore]

James was investigated in 2012 for similar $&!#...

 

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/former+chief+electoral+officer+Craig+James+under+fire+travel+expenses/7158330/story.html

 

 

Quote

 

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s former chief electoral officer spent more than $40,000 on travel in just four months, including airfare for his wife to join him at a conference in Kenya, a self-appointed government watchdog has found.

IntegrityBC released documents Tuesday showing Craig James — acting chief electoral officer from June 2010 until August 2011, and now clerk of the B.C. Legislature — claimed $43,295 from Elections BC for travel between Aug. 25, 2010 and December 12, 2010.

“This is an individual who chose to fly in the lap of luxury whenever possible on flights, and to stay at some of the finest hotels throughout North America,” IntegrityBC executive director Dermod Travis said Tuesday.

“It demonstrates a sense of a culture of entitlement,” he added, saying his non-profit organization requested the travel expenses after receiving a tip about the costs.

Documents show James’ expenses included $14,523.58 for he and his wife to fly to Nairobi, Kenya, to attend the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association annual conference.

Other expenses included almost $6,000 for James to attend a National Conference of State Legislatures in Arizona and almost $6,000 to attend the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws conference in Washington, D.C.

Disclosure documents posted to Elections BC’s website show James’ successor as chief electoral officer, Keith Archer, has spent only $15,409.17 on travel in his first 11 months on the job.

James stayed at the Cosmos Club in Washington for $298 a night, and the Arizona Biltmore — where the conference was being held, James said — for $399 a night.

On Tuesday, James defended the expenses saying they were all legitimate, and that all bookings were done in accordance with the policy of the day.

“The trip to Kenya was the annual conference for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, and [New Democratic Party MLA and then deputy speaker] Claire Trevena and her husband Mike, and the speaker [Bill Barisoff] and his wife, and myself and my wife attended this conference,” James said in an interview, adding he gave a talk at the conference on the recall and initiative process.

James said he was asked to give the talk because he had been overseeing the high-profile initiative vote on the Harmonized Sales Tax.

James said he was able to bring his wife because of a policy allowing senior Elections BC staff to expense two tickets — for themselves and a spouse — if they are cheaper than one business class seat.

“The practice has been that you can take that business class ticket and split it in two, provided the economy fare doesn’t exceed the business class fare,” said James.

Documents released Tuesday show that policy at Elections BC was contained in a document approved by James himself, shortly after he took the job.

James also said that much of his travel was subsidized by other organizations, and so taxpayers are not footing the entire cost of his travel.

“A lot of my travel is with the World Bank, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and most recently with La Trobe University, which has now been shifted over to Deakin University,” he said. “It would have been significantly more if it was not subsidized.”

Documents obtained by IntegrityBC through a freedom of information request show James submitted documentation showing an executive class trip on Air Canada would have cost $19,577.70. Using a group rate through a travel agent, James and his wife both flew restricted business class on KLM for a total of $14,523.58.

The release by IntegrityBC comes at a time of widespread fiscal austerity in government, with Finance Minister Kevin Falcon having cracked down on executive salaries and perks recently at several Crown corporations.

The release also came on the same day James was overseeing the first public meeting by the committee that oversees the management of the legislature and its spending.

In that meeting, James proposed that on a quarterly basis he would provide the committee with a financial report on the legislature’s activities and spending.

On Tuesday, Elections BC spokesman Don Main said James’s Kenya trip had been arranged when James was clerk of committees at the legislature, and before his arrival at Elections BC.

“That trip was planned before he started with Elections BC, but because that happened in his tenure while he was at Elections BC, Elections BC would have paid for that,” Main said.

Main also said the province’s new chief electoral officer rescinded the James-era travel policy upon his arrival, instead adopting the same rules that apply to core government agencies.

That policy states that travel expenses of a spouse can only be expensed when “a spouse is formally representing the government and a written invitation has been issued to the spouse”, when “travel is to a pre-retirement seminar or awards function,” or when the employee is relocating.

The Speaker’s office did not respond to a question about the budget for Barisoff and Trevena to go to Kenya with their spouses, instead referring the matter back to James.

The NDP said Trevena’s trip was funded entirely by the Speaker’s office.

 

 

[Gurn]

28 minutes ago, DonLever said:

The report describes a 2018 trip to the U.K., where Plecas was travelling with James and Lenz. The travellers stayed in luxury hotels and flew business class, the report says. The three were travelling for a series of introductory meetings, which Plecas said "did not seem to me to be the kind of conversation that required an in-person meeting."

It would seem that Mr. Plecas should also be suspended while this investigation continues.

[xereau]

We need these clowns why, again?

[Angry Goose]

death by hanging

[Mackcanuck]

 

[riffraff]

I wish I didn’t even know about this kind of stuff.

[Tre Mac]

6 hours ago, gurn said:

It would seem that Mr. Plecas should also be suspended while this investigation continues.

Why?  He seems like a #$%&ing hero at this point.  Good on him.

[JM_]

1 hour ago, Tre Mac said:

Why?  He seems like a #$%&ing hero at this point.  Good on him.

 

@gurn because in 2018 Plecas didn't care enough about his 'lavish' trip to make a stink about it. He only initiated this sh!t storm once the recall effort to remove him picked up real steam so suddenly there's a damning story about the people he took a luxury ride to the UK with. 

 

Don't get played, this is all about Pleacas trying to save his ass from recall - and I'm not trying to let off the others by any means but this is Plecas trying to save himself. 

 

https://www.abbynews.com/news/campaign-to-recall-speaker-darryl-plecas-launched-in-langley/

[goalie13]

18 minutes ago, Jimmy McGill said:

 

@gurn because in 2018 Plecas didn't care enough about his 'lavish' trip to make a stink about it. He only initiated this sh!t storm once the recall effort to remove him picked up real steam so suddenly there's a damning story about the people he took a luxury ride to the UK with. 

 

Don't get played, this is all about Pleacas trying to save his ass from recall - and I'm not trying to let off the others by any means but this is Plecas trying to save himself. 

 

https://www.abbynews.com/news/campaign-to-recall-speaker-darryl-plecas-launched-in-langley/

Was this crap at the legislature the last bit of ammo that the recall campaign was waiting for?  Apparently you have a to wait a year before recalling an MLA, but that would have been May 2018.

 

I see that their Facebook page basically goes back to the election, but the news regarding the recall campaign launching wasn't until January 8th.  The sgt-at-arms and clerk were ushered out back in November.

 

As much as I dislike Plecas, I think this recall campaign has about a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding.

[JM_]

20 minutes ago, goalie13 said:

Was this crap at the legislature the last bit of ammo that the recall campaign was waiting for?  Apparently you have a to wait a year before recalling an MLA, but that would have been May 2018.

 

I see that their Facebook page basically goes back to the election, but the news regarding the recall campaign launching wasn't until January 8th.  The sgt-at-arms and clerk were ushered out back in November.

 

As much as I dislike Plecas, I think this recall campaign has about a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding.

He's pretty soundly hated in Abbotsford tho. Switching from the Libs to  help Horgan, now a smarmy trip to the UK and a friend writing a "repot" to cya? I think they can get 16,000 signature in 60 days, particularly if it carries the weight of potentially bringing down Horgan, the media will give it a lot of attention. 

 

Don't get me wrong at all here, this was 3 little piggies with their hands in the cookie jar, and one squealed to save his bacon. There's no "hero" in this story. 

[PhillipBlunt]

Well, if I was in charge, I'd take these three out to Entiako Provincial Park, outfit them in striploin suits, and bid them fare thee well.

[goalie13]

1 minute ago, Jimmy McGill said:

He's pretty soundly hated in Abbotsford tho. Switching from the Libs to  help Horgan, now a smarmy trip to the UK and a friend writing a "repot" to cya? I think they can get 16,000 signature in 60 days, particularly if it carries the weight of potentially bringing down Horgan, the media will give it a lot of attention. 

 

Don't get me wrong at all here, this was 3 little piggies with their hands in the cookie jar, and one squealed to save his bacon. There's no "hero" in this story. 

While I agree he's hated (side note - He was one of my wife's profs when she was at UCFV.  She didn't like him back then either.) there has only been one recall campaign that succeeded, so I think the odds are stacked against them.

 

And I don't think it's just the switching to help Horgan, it's how fast he did it after the election.  Plecas is only in this for Plecas, not his constituents or anyone else.

[JM_]

3 minutes ago, goalie13 said:

While I agree he's hated (side note - He was one of my wife's profs when she was at UCFV.  She didn't like him back then either.) there has only been one recall campaign that succeeded, so I think the odds are stacked against them.

 

And I don't think it's just the switching to help Horgan, it's how fast he did it after the election.  Plecas is only in this for Plecas, not his constituents or anyone else.

true it is a long shot. 

 

The part that really signals bs for me is Plecas pleading innocence about the UK trip. No one goes on trips like that unprepared or without a plan of action, unless you know its just a pleasure cruise. No one at that level is supposed to be 'surprised' by the types meetings. The idea that he didn't know exactly what it was is laughable to anyone thats done work for gov't. 

 

But hey that subscription to "Electric Bike Action" was worth it, no? 

[goalie13]

Just now, Jimmy McGill said:

The part that really signals bs for me is Plecas pleading innocence about the UK trip. No one goes on trips like that unprepared or without a plan of action, unless you know its just a pleasure cruise. No one at that level is supposed to be 'surprised' by the types meetings. The idea that he didn't know exactly what it was is laughable to anyone thats done work for gov't. 

 

But hey that subscription to "Electric Bike Action" was worth it, no? 

Agreed.

 

Now, I haven't finished reading the whole report yet, but the one thing that comes to mind is... who was approving all of these expenses?  Isn't that Plecas' job?  And I don't buy the 'well I was new and just went along with it' defence.  Being new to the job should have meant he would be more dilligent.

 

I work for a monstrous corporation.  I can barely get a new pen without filling out a lengthy report justifying the expense.

[JM_]

2 minutes ago, goalie13 said:

Agreed.

 

Now, I haven't finished reading the whole report yet, but the one thing that comes to mind is... who was approving all of these expenses?  Isn't that Plecas' job?  And I don't buy the 'well I was new and just went along with it' defence.  Being new to the job should have meant he would be more dilligent.

 

I work for a monstrous corporation.  I can barely get a new pen without filling out a lengthy report justifying the expense.

bingo. Thats why Horgan looked grey when this all broke. This has the potential to go up the chain, but this report, done by Plecas' buddy, is meant to distract from these kinds of questions. 

 

Its ironic and kind of humorous tho that this happened to Horgans gov't because they brought on a Clark Liberal. 

 

[canuktravella]

shady as .... lol  thatguys gonna go to jail lots of shady stuff going on under the table ehh sounds corrupt 

[johngould21]

3 hours ago, goalie13 said:

Agreed.

 

Now, I haven't finished reading the whole report yet, but the one thing that comes to mind is... who was approving all of these expenses?  Isn't that Plecas' job?  And I don't buy the 'well I was new and just went along with it' defence.  Being new to the job should have meant he would be more dilligent.

 

I work for a monstrous corporation.  I can barely get a new pen without filling out a lengthy report justifying the expense.

Where was the Auditor General in 2012 that approved James' wifes expenses? The woodchipper? This has been going on for quite awhile by the sounds of things. Seems a lot of that happened under the Liberals since 2001. It sounds like we're trying to shoot the messenger here. Just heard a quote from Wally Oppal, that he feels this vindicates Plecas and feels the focus is being made to implicate Plecas rather than James and Lenz.

[JM_]

9 minutes ago, johngould21 said:

Where was the Auditor General in 2012 that approved James' wifes expenses? The woodchipper? This has been going on for quite awhile by the sounds of things. Seems a lot of that happened under the Liberals since 2001. It sounds like we're trying to shoot the messenger here.

[inane]

12 hours ago, DonLever said:

From CBC:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/darryl-plecas-bc-legislature-1.4986402

 

Two senior B.C. Legislature officials who were suspended two months ago are being investigated for allegedly fraudulent and flagrant overspending, "lavish" trips overseas, inappropriate expense claims, cash payouts and misappropriating liquor from the legislature, according to Speaker of the House Darryl Plecas. 

 

Plecas' 76-page report was released Monday after it was reviewed by members of the legislature's management committee.

The report says that, based on what he had seen and heard, Plecas believed there was a real possibility crimes may have been committed and he felt obligated to contact the RCMP. The committee voted to release the report Monday and agreed to launch an audit of legislature finances, conduct a workplace review and submit that report to an auditor from outside of B.C.

 

Clerk of the House Craig James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz were both suspended Nov. 20 and escorted out of the legislature by police. They have not been charged with any crime, and have denied all wrongdoing.

 

Shortly before the report was released to the media, Allen Mullen, adviser to Plecas, told reporters the allegations involve "millions of dollars."

"I would suggest what's contained in this report is improper, at times against policy," said Mullen.

"It's not speculation, it's not made up, it's not opinion. It is fact and it is backed up by documents, receipts, letters and proof."

 

'False and untrue'

James and Lenz said in a statement they were "shocked."

"Prior to the release of these allegations this afternoon, no one shared them with us, no one told us what we are being accused of and no one gave us any chance to respond," it read in part.

"The Speaker has now compounded the harm to us and our families by preparing a report in secret, without any input from us, and recommended that it be released to the public to further blacken our reputations. We are only now able to read the allegations for the first time and we are confident that time will show that they are completely false and untrue."

 

The statement said that releasing the report without providing a chance for them to respond was "contrary to how our public institutions should treat people."

It said the pair would issue a more detailed response after going through the list of allegations.

Mike Farnworth, B.C.'s solicitor general, said he was shocked and saddened to read the allegations in the report, calling them "unacceptable."

"I think the general public would look at it and say, 'That's just wrong,' " he said.

 

'Flagrant' overspending

The report, which includes details of trips and conversations, as well as scanned receipts and tables of expenses, alleges overspending and misappropriation of funds in a number of areas, including:

• "Flagrant overspending on luxurious trips" with "questionable" business rationales, and taking overnight trips at the legislature's expense, for what appear to be "other than legitimate work purposes."
• Expensing personal purchases to the legislature, totalling tens of thousands of dollars over a period of less than two years.
• "Inappropriate" cash payouts in lieu of vacation, totalling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• Misappropriation of alcohol and electronic equipment.
• Potentially "retributive or otherwise unjustified" termination of employees.

The report also alleges that steps were taken to conceal information that could have indicated improperly claimed expenditures, and that attempts were made to access benefits in the millions of dollars.

 

Surprised at 'how little we were doing'

The report describes a 2018 trip to the U.K., where Plecas was travelling with James and Lenz. The travellers stayed in luxury hotels and flew business class, the report says. The three were travelling for a series of introductory meetings, which Plecas said "did not seem to me to be the kind of conversation that required an in-person meeting."

"Throughout the trip, I was very surprised at how luxuriously we were travelling and how little we were doing for a work trip," wrote Plecas, who said he was new to the job and didn't want to alienate the pair.

He said the pair claimed per diems for meals that were provided and not paid for out of pocket, and charged souvenirs to taxpayers. The report also alleges $1,100 was expensed for a suit, which Lenz said was a "uniform" for work. 

 

One part of the report describes the purchase of a wood splitter for $3,200, to prepare for a crisis scenario in which a tree fell on the legislature grounds. However the wood splitter was delivered to James's home, where Lenz and James used it to split firewood, the report says.

The report also alleges that James instructed three Legislative employees to load alcohol leftover from an event into his truck, and details that $5,000 dollars worth of digital subscriptions to magazines like Arizona Highways and Electric Bike Action were expensed.

wut?