As the fallout from Tuesday’s release of the provincial government’s 2013-14 public accounts continues, the media have been all over the story of various CEOs getting more money from taxpayers than they are legally allowed to.

The government sets caps for various jobs, but at least three agencies, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, the BC Cancer Agency and the Royal BC Museum, tried to circumvent those rules and give their CEOs off-the-books, unreported perks and pay. This caused much gnashing of teeth from Finance Minister Mike de Jong.

De Jong has docked the agencies some of this money from their funding grants, and demanded rollbacks to the salaries. I’d suggest going a step forward: fire the boards that allowed this to happen. It’s up to them to represent taxpayers’ interests and these boards have failed to do that.

Speaking of boards that should be fired, I see the BC Lottery Corporation finally wised up and decided to go after former CEO Michael Graydon for part of his severance payout. From the Sun:

Lottery board chairman Bud Smith has said directors were unaware of Graydon’s negotiations when they voted to give him a payout package upon his departure. That package was worth more than $114,000, according to new figures from the lottery corporation.

“The Board would not have agreed to pay these monies had they received full disclosure,” read the letter from J. Kenneth McEwan, counsel for the lottery corporation. “Given the facts and given your acknowledgment and apology in light of the findings of the Ministry of Finance, BCLC requests that you make restitution to it of the salary paid to you for February and March, 2014, together with the salary holdback. 

“This will provide redress for monies that were paid to you based on your incomplete ... representations.”

BCLC wants Graydon to repay $48,135.91 in salary from Jan. 29 to March 31, as well as $35,656 in “holdback” salary paid for meeting performance targets. The net total is $55,171.20 after taxes and other deductions.

It’s an important step but the BCLC board should not think for one second that this absolves them in taxpayers’ eyes.