The provincial government is appointing a person to oversee Conestoga College after an audit discovered a “luxury” trip to Italy with “egregious” spending on alcohol and “premium” transportation.
The government said the audit found “evidence of serious financial and governance mismanagement.”
Linda Franklin will be the administrator for the college, a press release May 7 reads. She has been the CEO of two associations in her 30 years of work and served on the public sector boards. Recently, she retired as the President and CEO of Colleges Ontario.
According to the government, some of the decisions included a 55 per cent salary increase to over $636,000 to the former Conestoga president, John Tibbits. He retired in January after more than four decades as the leader, and the termination payment, according to the audit, was over 83 times the president’s monthly salary.
There was a $23,000 trip to Italy taken by three senior leaders at the college and “similar trips” where the school paid for business airfare, “luxury” accomodations and “premium transportation.”
“In addition, repeated, ineligible hospitality expenses were approved without proper oversight, including a $1,300 dining expense for internal staff, where 50 per cent of the pre-tax total was alcohol,” the release reads.
The college’s Board of Governors has also been let go, effective immediately, the government said.
Franklin is expected to work with the college’s interim president, Norma McDonald Ewing, and leadership staff to “refocus” the school on students success and restore “financial prudence.”
The “irresponsible decision making” has been followed by one of the largest Ontario college layoffs ever, and has created chaos for students.
In March, nearly 400 full-time staff were cut in another round of layoffs at the college, with the figure pointed at declining international student enrolment.
During that month, Leopold Koff, president of OPSEU Local 237, the union representing faculty at the college, said 181 faculty members and 197 support staff have either left the college completely or been forced into part-time roles out of “desperation.”
Koff noted that the school’s financial woes could be down to mismanagement and the fact that Conestoga College runs 12 campuses across Ontario.
“Our government’s record-setting funding for colleges must be used to drive student success; anything less is completely unacceptable,” said Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security. “Under the administrator’s oversight, I expect that responsible fiscal decision-making will return to Conestoga College, setting the college on the right path to producing the graduates Ontario needs.”
An internal memo from Conestoga College, obtained by 570 NewsRadio, said normal day-to-day operations will continue at the school and there will be no disruptions to programs, services or supports.