THE AUSTRIA TOUR......

-------- Your tax dollars at work ---------

Memories of Saudi Censorship.....

In the early eighties I did some work in Saudi Arabia. At noon each day, offices closed and reopened after 6:00PM. One day I discovered a copy of Time magazine in the hotel shop and eagerly bought it figuring I'd have a good read to while away the long afternoon. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that all but the shortest articles had been censored with heavy black ink and/or had pages and sections of pages cut out, making it impossible to read an entire article.

Mr. Anderson's travel expense claim for his junket to Austria reminds me of Saudi censorship..... On Mr. Anderson's 8 1/2 x 11 summary expense sheet, 30 items have been blacked out!That said, blacking out key bits of information raises more questions than answers about the remaining bits of information.

For example:

1. What does the notation Pam's Room 310.00 mean? Was this Euros or dollars? Why is Pam's Room included in Mr. Anderson's travel claim? Was this for Pam's actual room charge or was it for charges to Pam's room for other things? Who is Pam?

2. Mr. Anderson also blacked out information next to charges listed under lodging for each night on his travel expense claim sheet. What was blacked out that was so secret about lodging charges? Again were these charges in Euros or Dollars?

3. During the 11 days of travel to, from and in Austria in mid-July 2005 Mr. Anderson claimed his daily meal allowance charges but also claimed the following under the column "Other" on his expense claim. These I believe were all in Euros based on some of the attached receipts.... at around €1 = $1.50. Who was entertained and was the entertainment for restaurant and/or booze charges? More importantly, four years later has any of this entertainment produced new development in our communities?

July 16 Meals/Ent €282.20, plus €64.60

July 17 Meals/Ent €754.00 (Did Mr. Anderson tip €100 for this service as appears to be the case on the receipt with a handwritten amount for the tip?)

July 18 Ent €109.40

July 19 Ent €140.80, plus €192.00 (did Mr. Anderson tip €30 for this service as appears to be the case on the receipt with a handwritten amount for the tip?)

July 20 Ent €137.50

July 21 Ent €17.30

July 22 Ent €15.00,

July 23 Ent €91.00

4. Mr. Anderson's travel expense sheet also has the handwritten notations +$500.00 to SWSDA and +$478.48 to NSBI. Question.... Was this a mission undertaken by Mr. Anderson for NSBI and/or others? If it ways, have they shared in the costs?

5.Most of the other receipts provided by Mr. Anderson are too blurry to determine what was purchased..... Except for one receipt typed up on SWSDA letterhead for "KNIGHT'S DINNER AT THE GUSSING CASTLE" Dinner in an Austrian Castle in mid-July .... must be nice.

Perspective..... I've done a lot of traveling over the past forty years and I've been on numerous missions with delegations.... often with the assistance and support of the local Canadian Embassy. Did the Austrians do any entertaining?

Questions:

1. Who organized and paid for this visit?

2. What was the purpose and what involvement did SWSDA member municipalities have in this trip?

3. Why Austria and where does it fit in the strategic plans of our communities...? I was unable to find it as a priority of any communities in Yarmouth or Shelburne Counties in 2005.

4. Who were the members of the delegation?

5. Was a trip report ever published and are copies of it available?

6. Has an evaluation of this mission ever been undertaken and if it ahs, has anyone ever seen it?

CONCLUSION: Mr. Anderson summary expense claim sheet tallies up to 4,950.60, (if this is Euros then its $7,425.90) not counting the $206.96 in mileage charges to get to the airport, nor Mr Anderson's airfare fo $1,200 to $2,000......

Plus of course.... we now know we pay PART of Mr. Anderson's salary so that part of his salary that SWSDA pays.... plus overheads should be added to SWSDA's cost for Mr. Anderson to participate in this junket..... NOW .... we also know from an earlier post that Jason was there, appears .... so was Pam, and while each of them likely did not spend as much as Mr. Anderson on entertainment, depending on how many were on this swan ...... salaries, airfares, mileage, parking, meals, hotels and miscellaneous probably cost taxpayers a pretty penny...... Remember.... this is summer holiday travel time.....

EVER WONDER IF WE GET VALUE FOR MONEY OUT OF THESE JUNKETS?

Speaking of junkets..... Next ... the long-promised blog about Vegas trip with the missus!