The Ford government has relieved the board of governors and appointed an administrator at Conestoga College in Kitchener after an audit found “significant financial misuse and governance failings.”
Nolan Quinn, the minister in charge of colleges and universities, says Linda Franklin has been appointed to work with the college’s interim president to refocus the school’s priorities on student success while restoring financial prudence and governance to the college.
Quinn said a recent audit found “numerous egregious financial decisions,” including the approval of a 55 per cent salary increase for former president John Tibbits and a termination payment that totalled 83 times his monthly salary. The audit also uncovered a $23,000 trip to Italy taken by three senior leaders that included luxury accommodations and transportation, and approval of ineligible hospitality expenses, including a $1,300 dinner bill where half of the pre-tax total was alcohol.
The government is looking into options to see if it “can bring that money back,” Quinn said.
The college laid off hundreds of employees earlier this year following declining international student enrolment due to a federal cap on the number of international students.
“This pattern of irresponsible decision making has led to upheaval for students, staff and the local community, including the layoff of more than 500 employees, one of the largest layoffs in Ontario’s college sector to date,” Quinn said in a statement released on Thursday.
Franklin, who led Colleges Ontario, the association that oversees Ontario’s 24 public colleges, for more than 15 years, will act in place of Conestoga’s Board of Governors and provide accountable, transparent and effective direction, while also developing and implementing a plan to restore sound fiscal management and strong governance. According to the government, regular operations at the school will continue and staff, faculty and students should not see any disruption in services.
No other post-secondary institutions are under similar audits right now, the minister said, adding the government believes Conestoga is “an outlier.”
The government’s move to appoint an administrator is similar to the Education Minister’s takeover and appointment of supervisors at eight public and Catholic school boards due to financial mismanagement.