johngould21 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 2 minutes ago, Jimmy McGill said: Fargo immediately came to mind, You betcha! Maybe bodies will be unturned!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goalie13 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 1 minute 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. The thing is, Plecas is the one calling it out, but Plecas is also the one that would have had to approve the expenditures in the first place. If the expenditures weren't legit in the first place, why were they ever approved? I agree it sounds like this has been going on for a long time. Craig James has worked at the legislature for 41 years. I have a feeling that in the end, there won't be any finding of wrongdoing. I bet the underlying issue is with the culture and the systems in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alflives Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 8 hours ago, Mackcanuck said: And who pays for the audit? That's right. We do; the tax payers. Aren't we lucky? Maybe the NDP can use the monies collected from their new property ownership tax (which us property owners must prove we are living in our properties) to pay for them to audit their own? Does it matter who is in Gov't? They are all scum. (My apologies to scum) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM_ Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 18 minutes ago, goalie13 said: The thing is, Plecas is the one calling it out, but Plecas is also the one that would have had to approve the expenditures in the first place. If the expenditures weren't legit in the first place, why were they ever approved? I agree it sounds like this has been going on for a long time. Craig James has worked at the legislature for 41 years. I have a feeling that in the end, there won't be any finding of wrongdoing. I bet the underlying issue is with the culture and the systems in place. hence the giant distraction of a report produced by his friend. This thing stinks from all sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johngould21 Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Wasn't Wally Oppal brought in as an independent to oversee this paper? At least that's what was said back in November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM_ Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 5 minutes ago, johngould21 said: Wasn't Wally Oppal brought in as an independent to oversee this paper? At least that's what was said back in November. I wouldn't expect much out of Wally on this https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/wally-oppal-defends-speaker-says-he-s-being-treated-unfairly-1.23507827 This really explains why Plecas was so quick to cross the aisle. Its easier to keep the bodies buried when you hold the shovel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanuck Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Is it just me - or is it this simple: investigate, charge the people responsible, order them to re-pay all expenses (including the cost of the investigation) and fire them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 20 minutes ago, Fanuck said: Is it just me - or is it this simple: investigate, charge the people responsible, order them to re-pay all expenses (including the cost of the investigation) and fire them. I have a feeling that would be extremely hard to force a repayment, I don't know the law inside out but it's almost like that former person in Ottawa who hasn't done government work for like 15 years and averaged almost 100k a year in expenses somehow and that story just sorta died after a bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fanuck Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 4 minutes ago, Russ said: I have a feeling that would be extremely hard to force a repayment, I don't know the law inside out but it's almost like that former person in Ottawa who hasn't done government work for like 15 years and averaged almost 100k a year in expenses somehow and that story just sorta died after a bit If it was illegally/fraudulently claimed, and can be proven, I don't understand how it would be hard to force repayment. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/senate-expense-scandal-who-owes-what-and-what-s-been-repaid-1.1355913 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 If anyone wants to see the garbage that was expensed out and realize how badly politicians abuse our tax payers dollars and why they keep rising have fun reading this. He has about a dozen tweets about how stuff of stuff was expensed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warhippy Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 4 minutes ago, Russ said: If anyone wants to see the garbage that was expensed out and realize how badly politicians abuse our tax payers dollars and why they keep rising have fun reading this. He has about a dozen tweets about how stuff of stuff was expensed. Billy Barisoff in Penticton apparently showed James etc how to do all this and in fact gifted/gladhandled himself a very sweet retirement package https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/plecas-report-retirement-payout-1.4988123 Of the many scandalous allegations outlined in the Plecas report, perhaps the most costly concerns a lump sum retirement allowance of $257,988.38 paid out to Clerk of the House Craig James in 2012 that was based on a retirement scheme terminated 25 years earlier. According to Plecas, the payment was made possible by a 2012 memorandum to James signed by then-Speaker of the House Bill Barisoff in which Barisoff purported to end a retirement allowance program that had already ended in 1987. The memorandum triggered a calculation of outstanding liabilities and James received over a quarter of a million dollars, the report says. Both James and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz were suspended from the Legislative Assembly on Nov. 20. The two men have denied any wrongdoing and call the allegations in the Plecas Report "completely false and untrue." 8 jaw-dropping allegations from B.C. Speaker's report Luxurious trips, lavish overspending alleged in bombshell report on expenses of top B.C. Legislature officials In the report, Plecas has many concerns about the retirement allowance: James was first hired at the legislature in February of 1987 as clerk of committees, two months before the retirement allowance program ended. As clerk of committees he was not eligible for the retirement allowance, nor was it ever mentioned in his terms of employment. A few months after James was hired in 1987, a new benefits and retirement scheme was introduced which James participated in. That would make the lump sum payment retirement double dipping. The lump sum payment was calculated using James's 2011 clerk of the house salary and not salaries he had in lesser paying jobs in the preceding years. Although the retirement allowance was intended to be payable on retirement. a Barisoff memorandum to James in Feb. 2012 said that was not the case. Documentation suggests James tried to prevent having the lump sum payment publicly disclosed. The lump sum payment was addressed in anonymous terms in a 2013 Auditor General Report as "unusual compensation arrangements." A follow-up report conducted by the legislative assembly's then-director of human resources, Jo-Anne Kern, flagged that James's lump sum payment was based on extremely generous interpretations of the past scheme and should have been supported by formal documentation. It also brought into question the role of Barisoff. The Kern report was either not filed by then-Speaker of the House Linda Reid or it was removed from the Legislative Assembly's records. It is also missing from the Speaker's vault. Plecas wrote that he was able to obtain the report from a former employee who kept a copy "anticipating that its existence might one day be disputed." In summary, Plecas writes the payment to James was of "questionable authority and it ought to be investigated properly with consideration given as to whether it was authorized." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-DLC- Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 How much wood could a wood chipper chip if the speaker had kept tight lipped? Something like that. What a bunch of lying crooks. Is no one honest or of integrity anymore? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-DLC- Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Haha and the lawyer for the lumberjacks in training says they were just "holding" the equipment as there was no room to store it. *Noses grow an inch* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 3 minutes ago, debluvscanucks said: How much wood could a wood chipper chip if the speaker had kept tight lipped? Something like that. What a bunch of lying crooks. Is no one honest or of integrity anymore? Nope. That's why I don't trust anyone in politics no matter what party or platform they run on. Everyone seems to be out to screw the average Joe and then play pitty and ignorance. They are all scum in my eyes when I see my hard earn dollars being wasted on these morons screwing me and my family and friends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofsurrey Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 The only end result of this sad situation..... will be yet another generation of young voters turned off from BC politics and not bothering to vote. BC is a very corrupt province and it is very disheartening to say the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-DLC- Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhillipBlunt Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 1 hour ago, Fanuck said: Is it just me - or is it this simple: investigate, charge the people responsible, order them to re-pay all expenses (including the cost of the investigation) and fire them. I still think my suggestion would truly prevent further theft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM_ Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 30 minutes ago, debluvscanucks said: How much wood could a wood chipper chip if the speaker had kept tight lipped? Something like that. What a bunch of lying crooks. Is no one honest or of integrity anymore? I think many of them are, but its a case of the foxes watching the henhouse. That and some ridiculously lax rules on spending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-DLC- Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 12 minutes ago, Jimmy McGill said: I think many of them are, but its a case of the foxes watching the henhouse. That and some ridiculously lax rules on spending. Thing is, though...the lax rules on spending are sort of no brainers .... "business expenses". Anyone buying jewelry for their wife and trying to flog it off as uniform expenses is cheating the system, not really taking advantage of it. Same with a wood chipper that was purchased for guys who needed it for themselves. The lines aren't just blurred here, they're on fire. An $1,100.00 "piece" of luggage. OK, maybe that one could slide but my God, these people are _________'s to try this stuff. They know whose pockets it comes out of. Greed sure is ugly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingofsurrey Posted January 22, 2019 Share Posted January 22, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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