The topic: Money going missing in the Prince George Government Agent’s Office

What’s new:
An undisclosed amount of money went missing from the Prince George Government Agent’s Office last year. After a thorough internal investigation, the fate of the money, which may have come from private citizens’ payments, is still unknown. Outside observers and government representatives say there was clearly a procedural breakdown.

Why it’s important:
Service B.C.’s Government Agent’s Office handles money coming in from the public. Any government service fees, such as B.C. Hydro bills or hunting licenses, can be processed through the office. This means that potentially large sums of money are coming and going from the Prince George location, the city being the largest urban centre in northern B.C.

An internal memo from the Ministry of Finance, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, released in February 2017, details the investigation into the missing money.

According to the memo, the money went missing between March 18 and March 23, 2016. The document is highly redacted, so the amount of money gone is unclear, but it was enough to prompt local policy changes as well as an investigation by the Ministry of Finance.

The investigation was co-run by the Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizen’s Services, under which the Government Agent’s Office operates, and Ministry of Finance, which investigates monetary issues.

According to the memo, the investigative team noted that initial response to the missing money was swift, they filed a report and contacted the local RCMP detachment immediately.

Investigators questioned ten people who were working in the department over the five-day period, the memo says. Over the course of the investigation no employees admitted to loosing or stealing the money, and none offered any insight into how it might have happened. The investigation therefore came up inconclusive.

What the government says:
The memo, as well as the Ministry of Finance website, note that there are strict guidelines set out for Government Agents handling money. The full extent of these guidelines, however, is not public.

Tasha Schollen, communications director for the B.C. Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizen’s Services, says that the investigation into the missing money concluded that staff had become lax in handling cash and revenue. They have since been reprimanded and reminded of proper procedure for dealing with money.

What others say:
Dan Simunic is a professor of accounting at University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business. After analyzing the heavily redacted memo, Simunic says that the Government Agent’s Office was operating under a “non-system.”

“What’s really lacking,” says Simunic, “is internal control over how cash is handled.” He continues, “You should not have ten people with access to the cash. This is auditing 101.”

Simunic says that there are some fundamental auditing principles that should have been followed. Chief among them is limited access to the cash. He suggests that one have clear lines of responsibility and authority for the people who work there.

“Theres no excuse when you have an office of ten people that no one person is accountable,” says Simunic, “it’s egregious.”

Simunic says that with responsibility comes accountability for missing money.

What’s next:
According to Schollen, the Prince George government agent’s office has put into place new procedures, including ensuring that the deposits are secured at all times, and requiring employee signatures for access to the cash room and safe.

Schollen also said that there are more safeguards that have been put into place, but for security reasons, they will not release further details.

Supporting Documents:

1) This page of the memo shows that there was money missing, and that an investigation was launched. The FOI request was put in to the Ministry of Finance (not by me, I got this from the website). This information was helpful because it provides the story: the fact that there was money missing.

2) This page of the memo shows that there were ten people questioned in this investigation. Therefore the investigation did take some time and resources, so it was not a throw away amount of money. The expert, Dr. Simunic, highlighted that the number of people with access to the money was likely a factor in the inconclusive result.  The FOI request was put in to the Ministry of Finance (not by me, I got this from the website).

Access to information requests: