NPCA needs to restore public trust, says Lysyk
Long awaited auditor general report finds serious issues with operations, leadership
Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority must overhaul how it does business to regain the public trust, says Ontario’s Auditor General.
Bonnie Lysyk’s audit report of the agency, released Thursday afternoon found “weak governance and operational practices at NPCA” plus “significant issues” across several areas that included areas of human resources and procurement policies, poor flood mapping data and leadership problems.
The report, which makes 24 recommendations, also found costs associated with NPCA board member activity skyrocketed 422 per cent from 2010 to 2017, and its legal bills climbed 633 per cent from 2012 to 2017.
Nearly half of $3.8 million in NPCA contracts signed between 2013 and 2017 did not follow the agency’s procurement policies, says the report, which also highlighted concerns over the fairness of the hiring of at least three
senior staff, including former NPCA CAO Carmen D’Angelo, now the CAO of Niagara Region.
At the heart of problems at the beleaguered conservation authority are decisions of its board of directors — it is mostly made up of Niagara Region councillors — who don’t follow best governance practices, do not have training to function as effective board members and inappropriately interfere with the day-to-day operations of staff.
Many of these problems stem from the fact that board members put the needs of their municipality over those of NPCA and its mandate, said Lysyk. As a result, the board has made decisions that prioritize municipal goals like attracting investment instead of the conservation mandate of the agency.
It’s why board members lobbied to support the controversial residential development of the Thundering Waters wetlands in Niagara Falls, even when told by NPCA staff that a scheme to transplant the wetland wasn’t supported by science, she said.
“So they see things like growing the tax base as a priority over other considerations,” said Lysyk in an interview with The Standard. “Board members are put in a difficult position.”
The auditor general’s investigation was launched in October 2017 after several calls from the public and Niagara municipalities for a comprehensive audit of NPCA operations. Those calls came on the heels of complaints of mismanagement, poor business practices and allegations of corruption levelled against NPCA.
NPCA pushed back against the need for a full audit, even declining an offer by Lysyk to do a review. Last year, the board opted to hire a thirdparty agency to do the task, but that hiring process collapsed in more political controversy.
Following complaints by local MPPS, including former Welland MPP Cindy Forster, the provincial public accounts committee asked Lsysk to do an audit.
“Given the number of complaints (against NPCA) it was clear that the public wanted more information about what they were doing,” Lysyk said. “That was an indication that the public did not trust what was happening at the NPCA.”
The first indication of what Lysyk and her team were investigating came in July, when The Standard reported on a preliminary audit document that showed more than $1.5 million in contracts had been red-flagged by investigators for not following NPCA competitive procurement policies and having incomplete or missing paperwork.
Among those contracts was $41,000 paid to D’Angelo in 2013 for a human resources restructuring project and a 2015 contract Kealy and Associates to help NPCA with its “proactive approach to expanding the opportunities outside of the traditional scope of conservation authorities.”
Thursday’s report does not provide of a list of red-flagged contracts, but more than half of the $3.8 million in contracts signed between 2013 and 2017 were missing documentation and did not follow NPCA policy, Lysyk said.
“Our aim is to determine if something is more than a one-off, and if the issue is something that is more systemic,” she said, saying identifying the problem and providing recommendations is more important than singling out specific contracts.
Lysyk said the issue of missing information was worse the older the contracts were.
Through a spokeswoman, board chair Sandy Annunziata and NPCA CAO Mark Brickell declined to be interviewed by The Standard Thursday.
They posted statements on the NPCA website that said the agency recognizes need for improvement and has already implemented several changes that are aligned with recommendations in Lysyk’s report.
Lysyk said NPCA’s responses to her recommendations, which can be found in the report, were “positive.” In the report, NPCA agrees with most of the recommendations and findings.
The report says the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks will work with NPCA to implement the recommendations and monitor progress.
The auditor general also said her office will return in two years’ time to track NPCAs progress, and will continue to monitor the agency until all of the recommendations are enacted or otherwise become irrelevant.