Housing scandal needs explanation
They’re really sorry, for the scandal. Last week, news broke in The Province of widespread abuse of company credit cards, also known as p-cards, by employees of B.C. Housing, a Crown corporation funded by the provincial housing ministry.
According to a 30-page audit report completed by B.C. Housing internal auditors, p-card policies were “inconsistent” and “incomplete,” bureaucratic code words for wild and unregulated.
In 2011, card holders racked up $2.5 million in expenses, a nearly 50per-cent increase from 2009, throwing celebratory lunches inside B.C. Housing headquarters on Kingsway and dining at fancy Vancouver restaurants, such as the Shore Club and the Blue Water Cafe. All on the taxpayer’s dime.
According to the audit report, the abuse was widespread. But ultimate responsibility rests with B.C. Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay and B.C. Liberal Housing Minister Rich Coleman.
Both men refused to talk to this columnist, but when tracked down last week by the CBC, Coleman said he received the audit report “last summer” and was only concerned about “a couple of purchases” made by p-card holders.
If that’s true, if Coleman is only concerned about “a couple of purchases,” he’s ignoring the audit report, which blasts the entire p-card system from top to bottom. Of course, there’s another possibility. Maybe Coleman wasn’t fully aware of the audit report, which was released publicly only after a Freedom of Information request from yours truly.
The Coleman/Ramsay relationship has been interesting. During Coleman’s tenure as housing minister, the two men have helped construct a vast social-housing empire centred in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside where Coleman appears, frequently, to cut the ribbon on housing projects and appear armand-arm with poor people.
He’s the Santa Claus of social housing, with all the accolades and slobbering headlines. During the upcoming 2013 election campaign, he’ll often cite his housing portfolio and may eventually parlay his highprofile into leadership of the B.C. Liberal Party.
Ramsay, meanwhile, remains in the shadows, rarely appearing in public and never talking to reporters. Which is probably smart.
In June 2010, he married Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira, the Downtown Eastside’s largest social housing firm, which receives millions from B.C. Housing despite a recent CBC exposé that detailed widespread drug dealing, prostitution and disrepair in Atira-run buildings.
When asked in 2011 about the Ramsay/Abbott marriage, and the potential conflict of interest, Coleman laughed it off as a “non-issue.”
But back to the p-card audit, and B.C. Housing’s claims of reform.
According to the audit report, B.C. Housing rejected two key auditor recommendations: that p-card holders “provide detailed merchant sales slips” to their supervisors, and that management set spending limits for “staff gatherings.”
In a recent email to The Province, B.C. Housing said it rejected these recommendations because there are “stronger means to address the identified problems.”
Additionally, B.C. Housing won’t provide details of any disciplinary action, saying only that actions ranged from “requiring the money be repaid to termination of employment.”
There’s still much explaining to do.
Mark Hasiuk is a Vancouver-based freelance journalist.