Post by CRAZY4MYKIDS on Dec 3, 2006 19:24:20 GMT -5
CAS spending challenged
Public money is used on fancy cars, foreign trips and gym memberships, auditors reveal.
By ANTONELLA ARTUSO, FREE PRESS QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
Opposition parties were demanding answers yesterday after a draft provincial auditor's report revealed that officials of children's aid societies spent public money on fancy cars, foreign trips and gym memberships.
Children and Youth Services Minister Mary Anne Chambers said she is "not hiding from anything" but would not be free to comment on the allegations until provincial auditor Jim McCarter presents his official report next Tuesday.
A copy of the audit was leaked to the CBC.
Auditors allege senior managers received SUVs worth as much as $59,000, one individual had exclusive use of a CAS vehicle and received a $600 monthly car allowance, and one staffer was compensated for a trip to Beijing unrelated to his job.
Trips to the Caribbean and Buenos Aires were highlighted in the draft audit which looked at children's aid societies in Thunder Bay, Toronto, Peel and York.
The report found initial visits to at-risk children were late by an average of three weeks in a third of cases reviewed.
McCarter said he doesn't comment on draft reports. "That's why it's called a draft. There could be changes."
The Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies expressed regret it couldn't comment on the draft report either.
"While management practices must be scrutinized very carefully, it is critically important that Ontarians support the work of individual child welfare workers, who work hard to respond to the overwhelming demand for care for the province's most vulnerable children," the statement says.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said there have been numerous warnings that something was amiss with the CAS, including reports from several coroner's inquests into the deaths of children while under supervision.
"But the McGuinty government has stonewalled, they've delayed , they've sought to blame somebody else," Hampton said yesterday. "This is about the accountability of a minister and the failure of a government to do anything when the repeated warnings were happening. I don't think this minister can continue in her position."
Conservative Leader John Tory said the minister would have known of these complaints months ago and yet provided no information yesterday that she has acted. "I thought her performance was disgraceful," he said.
;D