Kwantlen Polytechnic University broke the rules when it made two pre-employment payments of $50,000 each to president Alan Davis and former vice president Anne Lavack, a review by the provincial government has concluded.
A report by assistant deputy minister Rob Mingay was released by Finance Minister Mike de Jong on Tuesday.
de Jong called the findings “troubling.”
The report found “failures by Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) to disclose as required” and to make a detailed disclosure.
Advanced Education Minister Amrik Virk, a former Langley RCMP inspector until he was elected to the legislature last May, was on the university’s board when the payments were made.
The report does not suggest penalties for Virk or the university.
It also says compensation reporting guidelines “should be rewritten to emphasize that transparency is the overarching intent of the guidelines.”
The opposition New Democrats complained the payments were not included in the reported salaries of the two executives, but were recorded instead as payments to suppliers of goods and services.
“The Post-secondary Employers’ Association, the Public Sector Employer’s Council Secretariat (PSEC) and the Ministry of Advanced Education [should] conduct an annual mandatory one day disclosure and reporting session for the appropriate executives [who deal with salaries] in each organization” an online summary of the report states.
It also says compensation reporting guidelines “should be rewritten to emphasize that transparency is the overarching intent of the guidelines.”
In particular, the amount people get paid to move should be public information, the report says.
“The terms of moving allowances should be part of an employee’s employment contract and available for PSEC to review and the public to see as part of the mandatory disclosure reporting.”
The payments were not included in the executive compensation report to government, a report that was also posted online for the public to review.
- with files from CTV News