Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
So I read this report, and I should say didn't go through this with a fine-toothed comb. In all honesty, it wasn't quite the train wreck I had expected. There are at least a couple points where Grant Thornton notes that the CBE is in the upper echelon as far as efficiency goes. That sounds like a rather stark contrast to what I would have expected from the Education Ministers comments.
The worst piece of this is the governance portion. And yeah...it's not good, but it almost seems like they've managed to meet a reasonable bar in the other areas despite that?
And the building is just an easy target at this point. The plans were made in 2006, occupancy in 2011 and clearly it just looks like a horrible idea in hindsight. I was opposed to that deal back in 2010, but let's be fair...2014 and beyond haven't exactly helped make the lease payment look favourable! It's great to say "you should just sublet some space and reduce costs", but I don't know how realistic that is these days. People have probably noticed that there are a few vacancies in downtown Calgary these days.
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The CBE scored well in procurement and maintenance, to their credit. I would suggest that is indicative of good work done by certain departments, and not necessarily reflective of leadership from the Trustee level.
The gap in governance led directly to the reserve fund of 0.7%, which then led to 300 layoffs, 300 re-hiring, and dipping into funds set aside for maintenance purposes (one of the two areas they are actually competent at). The emotional roller coaster on employees who one week are told they have a job, and then they don't, and then they have it back again.....there were real, human, consequences to the CBE's mismanagement.
To me that says financial ineptitude, a lack of planning, and a desire to score political points by painting the UPC as the bad guys. When in comparison, the other boards in the province were not caught unawares to the same extent that the CBE was.
The lack of governance and controls also led to the building decision being allowed to happen in the first place. This has been a problem for a really long time. And yes, it is easy to tell them to sublet space. But the fact that they only contemplated a binary option (buy or sell) is indicative again of the weak financial governance in place.