Red River College’s board needs to be less generous with how tax dollars and student fees are spent.

Back in March the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), a donation-based taxpayers’ watchdog group, exposed how the College let its president expense her driver’s license and a pair of golf shoes. (Photo Flickr/AJ BATAC)

The College claimed the driver’s license expense was an accident, but said the shoes were to help the president network on the golf course while representing the College.

We later obtained the president’s contract and discovered that in addition to the salary she receives from the College, she also receives a pay top up for “discretionary expenses.” And that of course doesn’t include her “expense account.”

So if the College is giving her pay for “discretionary” purposes like golf shoes, why did the College’s board insist on paying for her shoes?

After this story broke the CTF received tons of tips suggesting other expenses to look into.

For example, we learned the College paid for bills for a wedding related event at the president’s house. The College now denies it was for a “wedding related” event, but they told us earlier this year the event was to entertain “wedding guests” who were going to the wedding of someone affiliated with another post-secondary institution the next day. We were told it was an opportunity to “forge strategic relationships” with that institution.

But why can’t the elite of these schools meet in one of either institution’s taxpayer-funded boardrooms? While the president has reportedly paid back the expense, the College’s board again stands by its position to allow it.

The College’s board has also rubber stamped some other odd expenses such as a $63 bill for sending flowers to the person who took over the president's old job in British Columbia. Taxpayers and students also paid for three dinner bills in three days at 529 Wellington for $872, $706 and $639. The bills were for “VP Interviews.”

No offence to one of Winnipeg’s nicest restaurants, but couldn’t “VP Interviews” have been conducted in the College’s boardroom? And if the interviews could only be done while eating, couldn’t the College’s cooking and catering students prepare the meal? After all, it would have given them additional work experience while saving everyone a few bucks.

We also learned the College used tax dollars and student fees to pay $8,800 to a public relations firm for “Media Relations – Cand. Tax. Fed.” Yes, it seems the College spent $8,800 to get media relations help to explain the $205 golf shoes bill and other expenses discovered by the CTF. It’s ironic that the College wasted more money trying to spin itself out of a story about wasting money.

It was nice to learn a $417 bill at 529 Wellington from October 2012 was repaid after we exposed the golf shoe expense in March 2013. A $200 expense for the president, her spouse, two staff and one of their spouses to buy tickets to the College’s Christmas Party was also repaid. Well, it seems $160 of it was repaid; sadly, the paper trail went cold when we asked for details on when the College was reimbursed.

It’s good the College has started to post the president’s expenses online – no other post secondary institution in Manitoba does that. However, it seems clear the College’s board should be paying closer attention in the first place.

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