Got my answer...... By Helesia Luke When the controversy erupted recently about one million dollars of playground grants randomly distributed through a lottery process run by the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils (BCCPAC), I have to admit I was not surprised. Over the years, I have been concerned about a lack of financial information from BCCPAC and its reluctance to answer questions about its financial situation. When financial statements are presented at BCCPAC AGMs, it is common for someone in attendance to call the question after only a few members have had a chance to raise questions about the organization’s finances. Because of this practice, BCCPAC has answered very few questions about its finances, questions such as: Why is the organization so extraordinarily dependent on government funding (over 70% of BCCPAC’s revenue comes from government grants)? Why does BCCPAC carry over large, unrestricted surpluses each year when, typically, government grants must be spent prior to March 31? How has the organization carried out numerous publicly funded projects during a period of time when its number of paid staff declined? Last spring, after a string of Ministry of Education funding announcements for BCCPAC, I decided that a deeper inquiry into BCCPAC’s financial position was in order. I initiated a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. This request turned up much more than I expected. I was looking for documents that would be generated in the course of carrying out the work of developing and running a project. These documents, I hoped, would provide a more detailed picture of how BCCPAC was using millions of public dollars. Instead, the information I received painted a startling picture of an organization awash in cash with little or no reporting requirements and few staff members in place to carry out meaningful work. Over three years, BCCPAC received more than $4 million from the Ministry of Education. This included three contribution agreements—two in the amount of $268,000 for core operating expenses and $85,000 for The Advocacy Project. Both core-funding agreements require BCCPAC to co-operate with the Province in making such public announcements regarding the services and the details of this agreement as the Province requests. As the collective voice of parents it seems a bit at odds that BCCPAC would agree to co-operate with the province on announcements and meet with the province to review its role, objectives, and activities. Surely, it is parents who should be reviewing the role of a parents’ organization. As I mulled over BCCPAC’s good fortune in receiving ever-increasing core funding during a period of intense cuts to public education, I read through the additional information in the package. Here was the biggest surprise—20 Letters of Award issued from the minister’s office between May 2004 and March 2007 amounting to a whopping $4,004,000. These single letters covered a range of topics from $150,000 given for improving student achievement to $600,000 for developing a multiyear parent leadership program. Most of these letters contained few if any conditions. All required BCCPAC to acknowledge the province’s largesse. The last Letter of Award in the package stated that a grant of $1 million was being advanced for developing a grant program to enable PACs to purchase playground equipment and that a cheque for that amount is enclosed. Surely, these single-page, sparsely worded letters were not the only documents related to $4 million of spending by a government normally preoccupied with accountability. Referring back to my original request for work documents, I had a series of follow-up calls with ministry staff. In those calls I asked for reports about these projects: How was the money spent? What were the outcomes? Is there a proposal from BCCPAC related to the $1 million for playgrounds? Is there a plan for how to distribute it? No, I was told, on all counts. We understand your request, ministry staff said, but they had sent me all the documentation about this funding that they had on file. The only other documents I might be able to obtain, they said, were photocopies of the cheques made before they were mailed. Even BCCPAC’s financial statements were not on file with the ministry despite their contractual option to ask for them. According to BCCPAC’s recently posted annual report, the organization has cash assets of over $2.4 million and revenue in 2007 of over $1.6 million. With a small staff and a volunteer board it is hard to imagine how this small organization is going to carry out any of the projects for which they received funding. After this story broke, so to speak, a few weeks ago in The Vancouver Sun, ministry staff called the reporter to say they would be providing further documentation related to this spending. To date, the ministry has not been able to shed more light on how these financial gifts were managed and why this particular organization is situated to receive millions in funding for programs it seems ill-equipped to deliver. Coincidentally, a few days after The Vancouver Sun story appeared, BCCPAC’s president announced a new grant program for parents wanting to hold a parent education day that includes a session on crystal meth. Interestingly, funding for this program—$500,000—was advanced to BCCPAC over two years ago, in March 2006, yet this seems to have been the first public announcement that grants were available. We still don’t know what, if any, other programs were delivered with the millions of dollars expended. Unfortunately, my search for a clearer understanding of how precious public education funding is spent in this area has raised many more questions than answers. Helesia Luke is a parent and public education advocate.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 05:38:24 +0000
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