SaskTel loses $150K in two separate scams

SaskTel lost nearly $150,000 in two separate scams perpetrated on the Crown corporation, says the government’s report of quarterly losses released Tuesday.

As well, the government paid out more than $100,000 to one of its regional economic development bodies that did not properly comply with a funding program but that has been deemed an accounting error.

One SaskTel incident saw a Vancouver-based employee of the SaskTel subsidiary Hospitality Network defraud the company of $70,060 by altering sales slips. The activities happened between January 2009 and this August and the employee has been fired and reported to police.

The second case involved an employee of one of SaskTel’s cellular dealers who created 79 cellphone accounts without the proper credit check process, allowing the individual to receive improper hardware subsidies and sales commissions.

The employee, who has been terminated, took $79,232 between April and August of this year.

Michelle Englot, a spokesperson for SaskTel, said the cellphone accounts involved real customers who may not have qualified for service if proper processes were followed. The accounts have been cancelled and no personal or financial information was accessed, she said.

SaskTel is not identifying the location of the cellular dealer, who will decide whether to take the matter to police.

In that situation the dealer is repaying SaskTel. The company is also trying to recover some funds in the Hospitality Network case.

New controls have been developed in each instance to prevent such actions being repeated.

"They are fairly substantial. They were ongoing for a little while, each of them, until we identified it. That’s why it’s important for us to put in place the controls to find these things out in a timelier manner," said Englot.

A further loss involving SaskTel saw a company employee provide her daughter a SaskTel demo phone for personal use at a cost of $1,700. The employee retired before disciplinary action was taken and the money was recovered.

Other Crown corporation losses reported to the legislature’s Crown and Central Agencies committee involved SaskGaming. A fired employee has been charged by Regina police after continuing to use a rental car that was being paid for by SaskGaming. The amount involved was $1,300.

Another SaskGaming employee has been charged by police with mischief for continually putting cooking oil behind the deep fryer in Casino Regina’s CP Express kitchen. It eventually led to an August fire causing $5,200 worth of damages and the closing of the kitchen.

In executive government, a Finance Ministry employee resigned after submitting $540 worth of false travel expense claims.

The MidSask Enterprise Region — located to the south of Saskatoon — also failed to comply with the funding agreement for revenue matching under an Enterprise Saskatchewan program. That led to a potential $114,756 overpayment that will be recovered through a reduction in future grants.

Enterprise Saskatchewan spokesperson Joanne Johnson said the program was designed for the province to provide funds for economic development projects that partners would match.

In this case, the proper paperwork was not in place. It is uncertain whether the funding from partners used to access provincial funding was in place.

"It was just a misunderstanding, I think, on the part of the (MidSask Enterprise Region) on how it had to be accounted for," Johnson said, although it continues to be reviewed by the provincial auditor.