Municipal expenses going online
Accountability committee provides variety of recommendations
Municipal expenses will soon be routinely reported online, after a committee struck by the province issued its recommendations.
The joint municipal accountability and transparency committee, chaired by Victoria County Warden Bruce Morrison, released its report Friday.
“We met five times and we were asked to take a look at how we could kind of standardize expense account reporting across the province,” Morrison said in an interview Friday. “I like to look at it as it’s just a way of reinforcing good practices that are already being carried out by a lot of municipalities.
“We believe that most municipalities are very diligent about expenses and I think these changes, once they are made, it should eliminate a lot of questions about questionable expenses. There will be safeguards built into this process now, clearly what is an acceptable expense and what is not.”
The committee included representatives from the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities, the Association of Municipal Administrators Nova Scotia, the Association of Nova Scotia Villages and the Department of Municipal Affairs.
The province issued a news release Friday saying that Municipal Affairs Minister Zach Churchill supports the recommendations of the committee.
Some municipalities already post council expenses online.
The review came on the heels of municipal expense scandals in areas including Richmond County. A forensic audit released last fall, which looked at about $800,000 in expense claims at the municipality, revealed a lack of documentation, with a large number of transactions not supported by detailed receipts. The audit also revealed questionable expense claims by some councillors and staff, including money spent on alcohol and charges for visits to two Texas strip clubs.
Revelations have led to the resignation of former CAO Warren Olsen and an investigation by Elections Nova Scotia.
Morrison said they would like to see a standard expense claim that could be used from municipality to municipality and posted online at least quarterly.
“They would be obviously accessible to the public if they would like to have a look at it,” he said. “We also were very clear that each municipality would have a travel policy, that is a requirement under the (Municipal Government Act).”
Morrison added the committee also stated that alcohol is not an acceptable expense by elected officials or staff.
“If you’re going to host an event and you have to buy alcohol for it, it would come out of your hospitality policy, if you were having a levee or having a dinner, that sort of thing,” he said.
The committee’s report contains recommendations based on practices already in place by some municipalities in the province. It recommends requiring municipalities and villages to post expenses of chief administrative officers and elected officials online, strengthening expense claim policies and practices including requiring municipalities to have expense and hospitality policies.
It also recommends requiring municipalities and villages to have a code of conduct, strengthening municipal audits and audit committees and clarifying the role of the Department of Municipal Affairs in ensuring municipalities comply with the Municipal Government Act.
The report also makes note of other ways to improve accountability, including performance management practices for chief administrative officers and the use of per diems as a standard practice.
Amendments to the Municipal Government Act are to be introduced this spring to implement most of the committee’s recommendations, the news release said.