NPCA audit to be released Thursday
Auditor General to report on investigation into embattled conservation authority
results of the long-awaited Auditor General of Ontario investigation of Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority will be released Thursday.
The announcement was in a tweet published Monday afternoon on the Auditor General’s official account that said the special audit report will be presented to the provincial legislature at 1 p.m.
Last fall, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk was directed by the provincial public accounts committee to investigate NPCA following several years of public complaints about the agency’s practices plus calls from Niagara municipalities for an audit.
In July, The Standard got a glimpse at some of the issues Lysyk’s team was investigating.
The newspaper reported on the contents of an auditor general document titled “Sample Non-Conforga mance Factual Clearance.” The document, which lists $1.5 million in contracts under investigation, 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 was $41,226 paid to Carmen D’Angelo — now Niagara Region chief administrative officer — for what the document says was an “unidentifiable service.” It was also looking at $27,120 paid to Mississau The consulting firm Kealey and Associates to help NPCA combat “nefarious sources” which had “impugned” NPCA projects.
At the time, Lysk 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 subject-matter 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.
Pelham regional Coun. Brian Baty, chair of NPCA’s fundraising arm, The Niagara Peninsula Conservation Foundation, has said he asked the auditor general to include the foundation in her report.