Since he arranged the suspension of two senior officers of the B.C. legislature in November, the bewilderment about the reasons worked against Speaker Darryl Plecas.
B.C. Liberals had second thoughts about how they were prompted to vote in favour of the suspensions of clerk of the house Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz on such short notice. They started sniping at how Plecas was managing the affair. That gave people pause.
The Opposition also revealed that Plecas had suggested replacing Lenz with his friend and special adviser, Alan Mullen. That introduced skepticism about the accuser.
James and Lenz held a news conference expressing mystification and emphatically denying any wrongdoing.
Then Plecas lost his composure at a committee meeting and promised to reveal a laundry list of mismanagement at the legislature so outrageous it would make people “throw up.”
That outlandish pronouncement raised more doubts.
On Monday, Plecas set out to deliver the goods. He released a 76-page compendium of the spending habits of James and Lenz based on his close observance of their conduct on various foreign trips, line-by-line analysis of their travel claims and an assortment of observations about their management.
It’s too early to say if it all holds up to scrutiny. But the manoeuvres at the legislative assembly management committee that preceded release of the report suggest that key MLAs are taking Plecas’s allegations even more seriously now than they were previously.
The document alleges egregiously out-of-line spending and financial misconduct on a host of fronts, many of them related to overseas trips on government business. Plecas claims the trips were heavy on sightseeing and souvenir-buying (some expensed to the taxpayer), and light on actual business.
Government house leader Mike Farnworth has spent weeks urging minimal public comment from anyone, in order to not endanger the police investigation into the two men’s conduct that prompted their suspensions.
On Monday he led the NDP majority to vote in favour of releasing Plecas’s report. Then he gave every indication that he accepts the allegations.
He said he was shocked. “What I saw ... the documented evidence in that report ... if it’s not criminal, it’s certainly unacceptable.”
“The general public will look at that and say: ‘That’s just wrong.’ ”
Liberal house leader Mary Polak also shifted her stance after reading the specifics of Plecas’s charges.
She said they were concerning, although she questioned why the Speaker signed off on some of the trip expenses if he was so concerned about them. (He noted he was new and didn’t want to alienate his key staff.)
More importantly, she voted on some moves that committee made that make it clear the Opposition is taking Plecas very seriously.
The NDP, Liberal and Green MLAs agreed to develop a comprehensive outline of a financial audit to address all the improprieties claimed in Plecas’s report. It’s been six years since the financial management of the legislature was roasted by an auditor general and major upgrades to oversight were imposed.
It looks like it didn’t go far enough and it’s time to do it all over again.
Tellingly, the committee wants it done by someone other than the current B.C. auditor general, Carol Bellringer. The allegations are serious enough that anyone with routine oversight of legislature spending is being excused from having anything to do with the probe.
Also ordered was a framework for a “workplace review” of all departments overseen by the legislative assembly, in order to address Plecas’s concerns about workplace culture related to James and Lenz’s management styles.
The committee is also inviting a written response from James and Lenz by Feb. 1. After that, the MLAs will consider what to do about the continuing suspension of the pair. What’s on the table is their full-pay status that was granted for an indefinite period.
The original block against Plecas making his charges was that it could interfere with the police investigation.
That concern was dealt with in camera and has apparently vanished. It’s open season now and the hunt is on.
