NPCA, auditor general hold marathon meeting
Discussion of agency audit took place behind closed doors
The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board met with Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk in a marathon session Friday behind closed doors to discuss the audit of the agency.
The special meeting of the conservation authority, called by chair Sandy Annunziata, began with a unanimous vote to waive rules that prohibit notes from being taken during an in camera discussion and approve having a “recording secretary” create a written record of the discussions.
Board members who came and went from the meeting room at Ball’s Falls conservation area — including Port Colborne Mayor
John Maloney,
Welland Mayor
Frank Campion and Wainfleet
Mayor April Jeffs — were tightlipped about the closed-door discussions.
It was a sentiment shared by Lysyk before the meeting began.
“I can’t comment when an audit is underway,” Lysyk said. “I hope you understand that it is not something we do.”
The auditor general announced her office would audit NPCA on October 25, 2017, after activists alleged the conservation authority was rife with corruption, mismanagement and shoddy environmental practices, something board members have consistently refuted.
The auditor general staff began working on the audit in early 2018 after the provincial legislature’s public accounts committee put forward a motion instructing Lysyk to conduct a full financial audit of the agency.
When the report is finished, Lysyk will deliver the findings to the legislature at Queen’s Park in Toronto.
Lysyk had to leave the meeting before it concluded, and gave no indication when the report will be finished.
Early this summer, The Standard reported on the contents of a document it obtained titled “Sample Non-Conformance Factual Clearance.” The document gave the public a glimpse into about 40 issues that had drawn the scrutiny of the auditor general’s office.
The conservation authority’s chief administrative officer, Mark Brickell, criticized the story as
“shocking” and reckless” despite the fact the Standard article clearly stated the information disclosed was not the final report, made no conclusions or included responses from the NPCA.
Lysyk told the NPCA’s board that she would investigate the leak. There was no word if that was addressed in the meeting.