An investigation into the world news revealed how the city of Richmond spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on catering gift cards.
The results of a request for freedom of information for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 returned 493 pages of documents, including receipts and emails.
They show that the city spent about $ 156,000 in 2022, $ 218,000 in 2023 and $ 124,000 in 2024, for a total of around $ 498,000. Subtract possible duplications, it came to $ 445,000
Richmond previously said that gift cards cost taxpayers $ 32,800 in 2022, $ 71,550 and $ 71,300 in 2024.
An employee of Richmond, whom we agreed not to identify because he was not allowed to speak on the subject, told us that many cards had been kept in a bowl.
Others have been given for no particular reason, they said.
Get daily national news
Get the best news of the day, the titles of political, economic and current affairs, delivered in your reception box once a day.
“For the moment, it seemed great, you have a card, but when you think about it, why do we get them, we are very well paid to do our job and we are not a private organization, so these are all taxes,” he said.
He said that some employees had been invited to play before they had the gift.
“I heard it, I never saw it, sometimes they made you sing a song and you have a card for that,” he said.
The employee said they had not seen anything to explain how they were distributed.
“These are the kinds of things that would come from the mandate of a general auditor,” said Gordon Ruth, the former verifier general of British Columbia for the local government.
“The local governments of British Columbia no longer have this additional level of transparency, responsibility and really an overview of the efficiency of the public.”
After asking for an additional time to examine the numbers, City of Richmond replied that, as we have pointed out, “several recordings exist for the same transaction. Consequently, we have not been able to check your figures.”
The city also said that “there is no gift card budget in the city of Richmond”, something that Ruth called disturbing.
“I mean that it is a fairly important expenditure, so I am surprised that they did not plan it and did not manage it,” he said.
Will the gift card program continue?
Richmond says that “gift cards are now only authorized when they recognize long service, retirement and volunteer service.”
The discretionary part of the questionable program has apparently been canceled.
& Copy 2025 Global News, A Division of Corus Entertainment Inc.