Surrey’s School District 36 doing reasonable job managing its executives’ expenses

Auditor General Carol Bellringer

THE Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia has released a new report, Executive Expenses at School District 36, that says that overall, the school district in Surrey is doing a reasonable job managing its executives’ expenses.

The district’s financial records were complete and accurate, and public disclosures of executive expenses, as required by the Financial Information Act, were complete, it states.

“We found that school district expenses for executive staff generally complied with applicable school district policies,” said Carol Bellringer, Auditor General. “To further strengthen its management of payment of executive expenses, we offered the district two recommendations to enhance its policies and procedures.”

One recommendation was to align the district’s policies more closely to government’s Core Policy and Procedures Manual. The second was to ensure the enforcement of its existing policy requirements for its employees.

“We encourage the other school districts in the province to read our report and ensure they’re appropriately managing, and fully disclosing, their employees’ expenses,” Bellringer added.

Payments for executive expenses need to be transparent and disclosed consistently across all school districts so that everyone is held equally accountable for funds entrusted and spent.

The full report is available on the Office of the Auditor General website: www.bcauditor.com