New Year's Eve 2005 - Rodd Grand Travel Expense

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

Included in the receipts received from SWSDA is a receipt that purportedly claims that SWSDA's CEO paid $217.42 to the Rodd Grand Hotel in Yarmouth at 11:55PM on December 31, 2005. This SWSDA CEO tab for New Year's Eve at the Rodd Grand in 2005 was $177.42 and pencilled in on the copy of the document submitted as an expense claim by Mr. Anderson was a tip for $40.00. I assume Mr. Anderson was reimbursed for this expense since it appears in his SWSDA travel expense claims for 2005-2006.

Should we assume that SWSDA's Board members were aware that this expenditure was being charged to taxpayers of the nine municipalities or was it a legitimate charge against one of SWSDA's Project Accounts? If they were aware, can we assume that they are satisfied that it is an expense that should be borne by municipal taxpayers, or drawn from the monies provided by provincial and federal taxpayers in the name of community economic development?

Stay tuned for more. Tomorrow we'll have a piece about "liability" of Board Members.

Expense Claim May 18, 2005 Triangle Ale House

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


This is the first in a series of blog postings dealing with the travel expense claims of one staff member of SWSDA, during one fiscal year.

As a result of Justice Hood's decision that SWSDA is a municipal body, I received documents from SWSDA purportedly showing all of the CEO's travel expense claims and receipts for fiscal year 2005/2006. This posting is about but one of many receipts produced and claimed as a business expense by the SWSDA's CEO Mr. Anderson, for Wednesday May 18, 2005.

On May 18, 2005 Mr. Anderson charged the public purse $170.65 for a reported expense at the Triangle Ale House near Hollis and Prince Street in Halifax at nearly 11:00 at night.

It should be noted that this particular "transaction record" provided as a receipt to Mr. Anderson's expense claim for that date is not a receipt but simply a copy of an invoice for $130.65. A receipt would have the tip amount also printed, not handwritten as is the case in the documentation provided by Mr. Anderson.

It is impossible to determine from the document provided by SWSDA:

* if the card presented for payment was Mr. Anderson's,

* what was purchased late on Wednesday night on May 18th, 2005 at the Triangle Ale House at Prince Street near Hollis in Halifax worth $130.65,

* if the handwritten amount for a $40.00 tip (nearly 31%)was actually included in the amount paid.

Moreover, this late evening expense at an Ale House does not identify the purpose of this expenditure of taxpayers' monies. Was the $170.65 for dinner?.... Was it for more than 1 person? .... Was it for drinks alone? .... Why was a $40.00 tip added to this invoice for $130.65? ..... Were other services or benefits provided?

While Mr. Anderson has argued that he can't reveal who he entertains to the public, surely the Mayors and Wardens who sit on the SWSDA Board can and should ask for an accounting of expenses of this type.

In this Province, only the Premier, Ministers and Frank Anderson approve their own expenses. What would justify this expense from the hard-earned core funding provided by taxpayers in the Municipalities in Shelburne and Yarmouth counties and the community of Clare?

SWSDA failed to convince Justice Hood that Mr. Anderson's expenses should be kept confidential and away from prying public eyes. Against the backdrop of this one receipt, other questions arise as I review the 147 pages of documentation provided by SWSDA.

Reviewing provincial travel expense provisions for civil servants and comparing it to this expense claimed by Mr. Anderson should raise even more questions about what is being charged to the public purse. In my view, I would be seeking answers whether I was a voting or non-voting member of the SWSDA Board of Directors..... And, this is but one of many more examples to come!

Keep an eye out for this blog and pass it on to others who are concerned about the use of public monies in this manner. There is much, much more to come.

Government of Nova Scotia Travel Policy

--------INFORMED PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLATFORM---------

As a reference I am providing the URL for the Government of Nova Scotia's Travel Policy setting out meal allowances and other expenses allowed to civil servants while traveling on public business. Just copy and paste the URL at the end of this blog in your browser.

You may want to compare the expense claims of SWSDA's CEO to the government's policy as you read my blogs on this subject over the next months.

http://gsa1.gov.ns.ca/search?q=cache:CTXxDRE4UGIJ:www.gov.ns.ca/tpb/manuals/PDF/500/50701.pdf+Travel+Expense+Claims&site=GOVNS&client=GOVNS&access=p&ie=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=GOVNS&output=xml_no_dtd&oe=UTF-8

ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY

--------INFORMED PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLATFORM---------

It is readily acknowledged that government that is not transparent is more prone to corruption, abuse of privilege, errors,mis-appropriation of funds and undue influence because there is no public oversight or ability to provide informed questioning of decisions made or an opportunity to question the decision making process itself.

Purpose - The purpose of this blog is to shed light on the activities of a specific public body that has resisted being transparent - first by refusing to provide access to public records and more recently refusing to conduct its business in public - the South West Shore Development Authority (SWSDA). It is particularly appropriate that SWSDA be the focus of this blog since SWSDA has received some $100 million dollars in public investments in cash and kind since its creation in the mid-nineties.

About this blog - This blog is expected to be focused and have a short life because its primary mission is to demonstrate how things can go wrong when public scrutiny is not applied to the activities of a public body. To accomplish this, we have chosen a subject that many are familiar with - travel expense claims paid for from taxpayer funds.

In future postings I will provide information gathered under the Nova Scotia Government's Freedom of Information provisions respecting the travel expense claims of SWSDA's CEO from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 (147 pages of material). It is important that the reader note the dates involved here, for we will come back to them in one of our future blogs - this time period - and these dates are signficant.

In undertaking this information-sharing, it is my intention to raise questions and highlight what I believe are issues, while soliciting the views of readers. This is meant to be civil discourse about a public accountability issue affecting every taxpayer in the 9 municipalities that provide core funding to SWSDA.

I invite you to share this blog and your thoughts with others on the subject of the need for transparency in the affairs of government bodies, conducting public business with public funds.