The excessive purchase of gift cards with taxpayer dollars at the City of Richmond appears to extend back into the last decade, a Global News investigation has discovered.
Since January, Global News has been reporting on the excessive amount of money spent on purchasing gift cards in that city. At first, Richmond tried to say the cards were mostly for long service recognition.
But the numbers didn’t add up. Richmond has since admitted $295,000 worth of gift cards are unaccounted for.
A forensic audit is now underway, along with an RCMP criminal investigation, and at least one employee has been fired.
Global News has now obtained documents through the freedom of information process showing gift card purchases for the years 2019 to 2022.
The FOI request returned more than 1,000 pages of documents. We’re still analyzing the numbers but can report some early findings. It’s apparent gift card purchases were excessive those years.
Taxpayers bought cards for Lululemon, Cineplex, Netflix, Fairmont Hotels, Petro Canada, Indigo and numerous restaurants.
Other examples include $200 dollars of Starbucks gift cards, with a note indicating they were “office supplies.”
Taxpayers also bought Visa and Mastercard gift cards – essentially the equivalent of cash.
In one two-month period in 2021, over $4,000 of these cards were purchased in $50 and $75 denominations from drug stores, gas stations, and Best Buy. Each card had a $5 dollar activation fee.
Richmond previously said the gift cards were never reported to Revenue Canada.
Some cards were requested by the individual who was fired, but not all.
We’re analyzing the numbers and will have more in the days ahead.
Meanwhile, Richmond RCMP say their investigation remains active and ongoing.