Four years after a former Pembina Hills school division Supt. left the division under mysterious circumstances, the reason is now clear — $29,000 in fraudulent expense claims.
Richard Harvey pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 in a Newfoundland courtroom Jan. 22, and was sentenced to one year of house arrest. Judge Lori Marshall also ordered him to repay $29,061.71 within 30 days, according to a CBC news report.
Harvey, 63, now lives in St. John’s. The Alberta charges were waived to Newfoundland late last year with the expectation they would be resolved with a guilty plea.
According to the CBC report, a victim impact statement from Pembina Hills secretary-treasurer Tracy Meunier was read into the record, which said PHRD officials were “angry and disappointed … [he] stole from the public purse.
Crown prosecutor Jason House described a “lengthy period of dishonesty” involved in the fraud, while defence lawyer Tom Williams said his client was remorseful, had no prior criminal record and a 32-year career in education.
The 12-month conditional sentence was a joint submission, which Marshall accepted, according to the CBC.
Pembina Hills board chair Kim Webster said after so many years it’s nice to have some closure on this matter, and she’s pleased that as hard as it was to follow due process and not share any information, they got the result they were hoping for.
“That was very difficult over the years to continue to stay the course, but the risk was too high. We really did want it to eventually end with the outcome that has come today,” she said.
Prior to the ruling, the only explanation the division had ever offered was a one-line media release stating Harvey was no longer and employee of the division.
Webster explained that the process began in September 2010, when an employee noticed some irregularities in Harvey’s expense claims. That employee notified the board and a senior staff member, resulting in an internal audit done by accounting firm Grant Thornton. Webster would not say specifically what the $29,000 in expenses went to, but explained in general some of the kinds of irregularities they found.
“Examples of inappropriate expense claims would include submitting travel and meal per-diem claims for events that either never occurred or were never attended, or submitting receipts for personal expenses, or claiming to be at one place when records indicate someplace else,” she said.
The division shared its findings with Barrhead RCMP in November 2010 and after a lengthy investigation, they laid charges of fraud over $5,000 and breach of trust.
Those charges worked their way through the court system over the course of several years before the matter was waived to Newfoundland.
Further to forwarding the information to the RCMP, Pembina Hills terminated Harvey’s contract and tried to recoup some of the money from him.
Webster said they got “a little” back from him, but declined to elaborate.
The school division’s insurance company provided $41,250 in compensation, recognizing both the money stolen and additional expenses incurred as a result of the fraud. Webster could not say whether Harvey’s restitution money would go to the insurance company or the school division.
“We don’t have an answer to that question yet, and I’m not sure if it will take a bit of time to do some analysis and decide,” she said. “We don’t know that yet.”
Webster said the entire process took many, many hours of staff time to address, but there’s no plan to try to determine how much time or what the value of that time would be.
“There are costs you can’t really put a number to, and we’re not going to put further costs into analyzing what exactly that cost would be,” she said.
One of the significant results of this incident is that the board made changes to internal policies to make it more difficult for a superintendent to fudge expense claims — those claims must now be signed by the board chair and are forwarded directly to the secretary-treasurer — and a whistle-blower policy.
“That’s a process for staff, parents and anyone else to follow if they with to report any suspicious financial transactions, without risking their position,” she said.
Webster said the division and the board are happy to put this entire process behind them, having achieved the result they were looking for.
“We’re just very happy to have this closure,” she said. “We’re very happy the courts have ruled this way, and it’s not one of those matters that got off on a technicality because everyone followed due process.”
