NPCA to discuss auditor general report
Motion before board members would allow for written notes during closed-door meeting
The board of directors of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority will meet behind closed doors Friday to discuss an Auditor General’s report.
However, it is not clear from NPCA minutes published this week whether the beleaguered authority will discuss the ongoing audit of NPCA by Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, or her agency’s hunt for The Standard’s sources of information.
In a rare move, the board will attempt to pass a motion that will waive rules that now prohibit notes from being taken during closed board meetings. If the motion passes, someone designated as a recording secretary will create a written record of the meeting.
On July 24, The Standard reported on the contents of an Auditor General document titled “Sample Non-Conformance Factual Clearance,” which identifies a list of issues the auditor general is investigating.
The document is not the final report and does not contain final conclusions or recommendations. The final audit report could be different than the factual clearance document.
The document points to 40 items that were under investigation by the auditor general, including several that did not have supporting documentation.
Among the contracts under examination is $41,226 paid to Carmen D’Angelo — now Niagara Region chief administrative officer — for what the document says was an “unidentifiable service.”
It is also looking at $27,120 paid to a Mississauga consulting firm to help NPCA combat “nefarious sources” which had “impugned” NPCA projects.
At the time, Lysyk said she could not comment on the document and said that its leak constituted obstruction under the Auditor General’s
Act.
Section 11.2 of the act says no one “shall conceal or destroy any books, accounts, financial records, electronic data processing records, reports, files and all other papers, things or property that the Auditor General considers to be relevant to the subjectmatter of the special audit or examination.” Doing so would be obstruction and is punishable by a $2,000 fine and a year in prison.
The auditor general’s office has declined to explain how the release of the document could be considered as obstruction as defined in the act.
Last fall, Lysyk was directed by the provincial public accounts committee to investigate NPCA following several years of complaints about the agency’s practices and calls from Niagara municipalities for an audit. There is no date scheduled for her to release a report, but when it is it will be publicly presented to the provincial legislature.
Friday’s meeting starts 9:30 a.m. at the Ball’s Falls Centre for Conservation in Jordan.