Premier’s Christy Clark’s Judgment Also Called Into Question For Supporting “Dishonest Politician”!
“Simply put, these email exchanges and investigation notes prove that Mr. Virk is a dishonest politician, and cast serious doubts on the credibility of Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s investigation into his sleazy dealings,” said New Democrat MLA David Eby. “The documents prove that Virk deliberately misled finance ministry investigator Rob Mingay about his involvement in developing and approving a scheme to circumvent provincial executive compensation guidelines. It speaks volumes about Premier Christy Clark’s judgment that despite this damning evidence about Minister Virk’s character, she still feels he is a suitable cabinet minister.”
VANCOUVER – Scandal-plagued BC Liberal minister Amrik Virk keeps giving the opposition NDP more fuel for the fire with recent revelations that he had been much more deceitful than he led on with the Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) executive pay package.
The LINK recently ran a story stating that Virk dug a deeper hole for himself after the NDP revealed emails that showed Virk knew a lot more about the executive compensation to Kwantlen Polytechnic University executive and deliberately tried to conceal damaging evidence while in cabinet.
The NDP had demanded that Virk be kicked out of cabinet. But Premier Christy Clark decided mid last month that Virk was probably too hot button for the Education Ministry and moved him to safer shores.
But the NDP was back this week with new documents obtained under Freedom of Information that reveal how the now Citizens’ Services Minister Virk misled a Ministry of Finance investigation into executive compensation practices at KPU.
“It speaks volumes about Premier Christy Clark’s judgment that despite this damning evidence about Minister Virk’s character, she still feels he is a suitable cabinet minister,” said New Democrat MLA David Eby.
“Simply put, these email exchanges and investigation notes prove that Mr. Virk is a dishonest politician, and cast serious doubts on the credibility of Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s investigation into his sleazy dealings,” said Eby. “The documents prove that Virk deliberately misled finance ministry investigator Rob Mingay about his involvement in developing and approving a scheme to circumvent provincial executive compensation guidelines.”
In late December, government was forced to release hundreds of pages of email and interview records detailing Mingay’s investigation of KPU on behalf of Finance Minister Mike de Jong. The documents reveal that Virk refused to tell Mingay the truth about his actions on the KPU board despite repeated questions.
The documents also show that while Mingay became aware that KPU and many other crown agencies were violating executive compensation and reporting guidelines, those findings were not included in his final report to de Jong.
“These records make it clear that Virk simply cannot be trusted to tell the truth to the public, civil servants or to his cabinet colleagues,” said Eby. “How Premier Clark sees fit to keep him around the cabinet table is beyond me. British Columbians deserve better from their government.”
Eby said the New Democrats are forwarding all documents to British Columbia’s Auditor General and requesting a new audit of KPU that would include all newly discovered documents and information.
The LINK recently ran a story stating that scandal plagued BC Liberal Advanced Education Minister Amrik Virk dug a deeper hole for himself after the NDP revealed emails that showed Virk knew a lot more about the executive compensation to Kwantlen Polytechnic University executive and deliberately tried to conceal damaging evidence while in cabinet.
“Minister Virk was part of a plan to break government compensation and disclosure rules, and then he withheld this key evidence from a government investigation while sitting in cabinet as the minister responsible for enforcing those rules,” said New Democrat leader John Horgan.
The emails from April 2011 show that Virk approved a scheme to break executive compensation limits for a Kwantlen Polytechnic University executive, former Vice President Anne Lavak. This is not reflected in the government’ s internal review into the conduct of Minister Virk, which cleared Virk of having any knowledge of Ms. Lavak’s compensation exceeding government rules on executive pay.
Following the disclosure of the emails, Opposition MLAs renewed their call Virk to be removed from cabinet.
Virk was on the Kwantlen Polytechnic University board of governors in April 2011, when an offer was made to then-University of Regina dean of business Ann Lavack for the position of vice-president academic (VPA) for Kwantlen.
Emails released by the NDP Monday show Virk, then an inspector with the Langley RCMP and a volunteer Kwantlen board member, participating in discussion to get around the B.C. salary guidelines for the job.
The Kwantlen VPA salary was capped at $170,000, less than what Lavack was making in Regina. The emails discuss adding $100,000 for moving expenses and a $20,000 “research allowance.”
Virk confirmed that he wrote in an April 2011 email from his RCMP account: “Given the low pay level of a VPA at Kwantlen and the difficulty in drawing candidates within the current pay scale, the research leave is one way to ‘top’ off the pay level.”
Virk claims he had forgotten the email exchange, and it will be forwarded to Rob Mingay, the government official who conducted the investigation.
“Mr. Virk has demonstrated bad judgment not once, not twice, but three times and it’s probably time for him to get out of cabinet,” said Horgan.
