Latest news with #giftcards
CTV News
22-05-2025
- CTV News
$25K in gift cards seized from ‘serial fraudster' in Metro Vancouver
Gift cards and other items seized by the are shown in this image provided by the North Vancouver RCMP.
CBC
21-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Richmond, B.C., councillor 'dumbfounded' by alleged misuse of city hall gift card program
Social Sharing A city councillor in Richmond, B.C., is calling for a more fulsome audit of city finances amid a police investigation into alleged misuse of a gift card program. In a statement on May 15, the City of Richmond said it purchased approximately $446,000 worth of gift cards from 2022 to 2024 as part of an employee recognition program — but found in a recent review that around $295,000 of them were unaccounted for. Richmond RCMP said their serious crimes section has opened an investigation into the gift card case, which was first reported by Global News. The city said "an individual's employment with the City has concluded" following a personnel investigation. It also said it no longer uses gift cards and would be conducting a forensic audit of the past three years of finances. Richmond Coun. Kash Heed introduced a motion Tuesday to expand the audit to include the past decade, and have the findings presented to council afterwards. The motion was approved unanimously. He also co-signed an open letter to B.C. Premier David Eby that says the province needs to either reinstate a specific office to oversee municipal spending or expand the auditor general's mandate to cover it. Heed spoke with CBC's On The Coast host Gloria Macarenko on Tuesday afternoon. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. So what do we know about these gift cards? What we don't know is the troubling aspect of this — how we could let almost $300,000 worth of unaccounted transactions take place in the City of Richmond.... So that is very troubling. And we just know this from three years of data. The gift card program has been in existence for over a decade. As a result of that, I think we have to dig further into this particular problem to identify where this went off the rails, why there is such a discrepancy [in] the accounted-for and the unaccounted amount. Why does the city hold this much money in gift cards? I'm dumbfounded. I've never experienced this in [my] career. When I talk to other councillors throughout the Lower Mainland, they don't have a particular program like this. We have to remember gift cards are actually treated as monetary cash.... So when we have reconciliation, for example, for cash items that are purchased within local government, that is all looked after and it's all caught by the auditors to make sure there's integrity behind it. These cards were used as part of an employee recognition program. Do you think this is the most appropriate way to offer recognition? Absolutely not. It's proven itself that it's not the appropriate way. We cannot control it. We can't even account for it. So this is something that has been halted here in Richmond, but the reason why this went off the rails and the reason why we're unable to reconcile it has to be looked at, has to be explored. I'm not sure … whether this is a deficiency in our oversight or that there is actual fraudulent activity taking place, and until we do the level of forensic audit that's required to determine what went wrong, we will never know. We do annual audits outsourced by a particular company, they were unable to pick up on this. We have internal auditors that work within the City of Richmond, they were unable to pick up on this. We've got to delve into this. What do you make of the decision to stick with KPMG for the forensic audit since they also audited the city's financial statements? I think, based on whether there's a clear conflict or the possibility or the perception of a conflict, they should have outsourced it to another company that has the ability to do these types of forensic audits. KPMG is the auditor, they've been the financial auditor for the City of Richmond for decades now. And now we're bringing that same company in to do the forensic audit. It is very telling. According to media reports, one employee in Richmond has already been fired. What more do you think needs to be done for accountability? My fear is, do we have a deeper problem within our financial accounting of the taxpayer dollar in Richmond? And I think if we can truly understand what occurred here, maybe we can start looking into other areas to see and ensure the right standard operating procedures and auditing systems are in place.
CTV News
20-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Metro Vancouver area councillors urge more B.C. oversight of municipal spending
Richmond councillor and former B.C. MLA Kash Heed in a file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck VICTORIA — Four Metro Vancouver area councillors have launched a petition asking the British Columbia government for closer oversight of municipal spending in the province, amid a police investigation into alleged misuse of a city hall gift card program. Richmond's Kash Heed, Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas from New Westminster and Burnaby's Richard Lee say in an open letter to Premier David Eby that the province needs to either reinstate a specific office to oversee municipal spending or expand the auditor general's mandate to cover it. The councillors cite media reports that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on gift cards in Richmond, B.C., with little oversight, as well as multiple instances of 'questionable expenditures' at the Metro Vancouver Regional District. Richmond RCMP says its serious crime section has opened an investigation into the gift card case reported by Global News, which says Richmond spent more than $400,000 on the cards in three years. The premier's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter. The councillors have also launched an online petition on the issue, asking for public comment on what they would like to see from the province in terms of municipal spending oversight. 'Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident,' the letter says about the Richmond gift card case. 'Over the past year, Metro Vancouver has also faced public scrutiny over questionable expenditures, including lavish business-class travel, unnecessary sponsorships, and other spending that appears disconnected from the priorities of local taxpayers.' The letter also criticizes cost overruns and delays at the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant as another example of the need for provincial oversight of municipal spending. 'These examples reflect a broader systemic issue: the absence of consistent, independent financial oversight at the municipal and regional levels,' the letter says. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2025.
CBC
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Metro Vancouver area councillors urge more provincial oversight of municipal spending
Four city councillors in the Metro Vancouver area have launched a petition asking the B.C. government for closer oversight of municipal spending in the province, amid a police investigation into alleged misuse of a city hall gift card program. Richmond's Kash Heed, New Westminster's Daniel Fontaine and Paul Minhas, and Burnaby's Richard Lee say in an open letter to Premier David Eby that the province needs to either reinstate a specific office to oversee municipal spending or expand the auditor general's mandate to cover it. The councillors cite media reports that hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on gift cards in Richmond, B.C., with little oversight, as well as multiple instances of "questionable expenditures" at the Metro Vancouver Regional District. Richmond RCMP says its serious crimes section has opened an investigation into the gift card case reported by Global News, which says Richmond spent more than $400,000 on the cards in three years. The premier's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter. The councillors have also launched an online petition on the issue, asking for public comment on what they would like to see from the province in terms of municipal spending oversight. "Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident," the letter says about the Richmond gift card case. "Over the past year, Metro Vancouver has also faced public scrutiny over questionable expenditures, including lavish business-class travel, unnecessary sponsorships, and other spending that appears disconnected from the priorities of local taxpayers." The letter also criticizes cost overruns and delays at the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant as another example of the need for provincial oversight of municipal spending.
CTV News
16-05-2025
- CTV News
Employee fired after B.C. city finds $295K in ‘unreconciled' gift card purchases
An employee has been fired and police have been called in after a review by the city of Richmond, B.C., found nearly $300,000 in 'unreconciled' gift card purchases, the municipality announced Thursday.
