Surrey city councillor and mayoral candidate Linda Annis says news the City of Surrey is subject to not one but two fraud cases involving millions of dollars reinforces her longstanding call for Surrey to have its own auditor general.
"In my opinion it even more reinforces the need to have an independent auditor general," Annis told the Now-Leader on Tuesday. "Most big cities, in fact I think all big cities in Canada have an auditor general but Surrey does not and I think it's time that we move quickly and hire an auditor general, and certainly if this council isn't prepared to do it, and I have put forward a notice of motion previously which was declined, I can say certainly next term if I'm elected mayor it will be one of the very first things that I do. You know, our tax dollars are in short supply and we need to make sure that they're being used efficiently and that we have proper oversight."
Council on May 10, 2021 roundly defeated Annis’s motion to this end, with its members making the ironic argument that it would be too expensive a move to approve.
“The cost of this is fairly extraordinary, $1 million to $2 million,” then-councillor Brenda Locke said. “So right now, I don’t think it’s necessary. I know we have an independent audit of the city anyway.”
Mayor Brenda Locke could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday.
This past May, it came to light the City of Surrey is trying to recover $2.5 million plus costs and interest after filing a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against a former city hall employee. City Manager Rob Costanzo said Thursday the civil claim was filed in 2024 after "irregular transactions" were discovered dating back to 2017 that involved dormant development-deposit accounts. Nothing has yet been proved or disproved in court.
And now, a Law Society of Ontario document indicates that "at some time in 2019, the City of Surrey (British Columbia) was defrauded of $2.1 million. Using a fake email, the fraudsters tricked the city into routing the money to the wrong account. The money ended up in an escrow account operated by an Ontario paralegal. The fraudsters then tried to launder the money."
The document concerns a professional misconduct finding against a lawyer – Ganesh Balaganthan, a former 14-year veteran of the Toronto Police Service – alleged "to have knowingly assisted in a money-laundering scheme involving over $1.7 million ‒ He was found to have engaged in professional misconduct by being wilfully blind to a fraudulent transaction; failing to make reasonable efforts to ascertain the purposes of his retainer or information about his client; and using his trust account for purposes other than providing legal services ‒ A penalty hearing is to be scheduled."
Meanwhile, Annis remarked, "I absolutely am shocked. Again, it's all the more reason why we need to have an auditor general in place. It gives I think assurance to the residents that we're managing their tax dollars safely and efficiently and these two cases, you know, this can't continue to happen."
The Ontario document states that "all but approximately $78,000 of the stolen $2.1 million was recovered."
