By Stanley Tromp, Globe and Mail, May 6, 2015
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Two years ago, the school
fired a medical researcher
for improperly claiming expenses. The RCMP is also looking into allegations of
financial improprieties worth $5-million at the UBC dental clinic.
Police are investigating
allegations of fraud within
the faculty of medicine at the University of British Columbia, prompting the
school to note it is working hard to install safeguards to prevent further
cases.
Audits obtained by The Globe and Mail through an
access to information request say that, two years ago, the school fired a
medical researcher for
improperly claiming the same expenses two or three times from UBC, the Vancouver Coastal Health
Authority and the BC Cancer Agency.
The audits, which do not
identify the person, estimated that UBC
lost $425,000. The university turned its findings over to police.
The Vancouver Police Department rejected an
access request for documents on the matter because the case remains "under
investigation." The other agencies declined to comment.
The auditors said the researcher improperly transferred
funds among accounts and gave improper paybacks to a third party. UBC said it appears that claims
for lab supplies were unjustified. The auditors also questioned the man's
claims for work-related overseas travel, which consumed one-quarter of his
time.
"All of his descriptions
of the reason for travel were vague and inadequate," the auditors wrote in
the 2013 report. "The length of the visits also seems excessive for
research purposes."
In a second case covered last
November by The Globe, RCMP
are investigating allegations of financial improprieties worth $5-million at
the UBC dental clinic run by Christopher Zed. UBC has said concerns surfaced in
2013 when senior administrators were told of "suspected financial
irregularities" involving a program that was overseen by UBC faculty, including Dr. Zed. The high-profile
dentist was associate dean of strategic and external affairs at UBC's faculty of dentistry before
leaving that position in December, 2013. The university has not said why Dr.
Zed left.
UBC's dean of medicine, Gavin
Stuart, said in an e-mail that if the Crown charges the medical researcher mentioned in the
internal audits, UBC will
release more information.
For privacy reasons, UBC will not identify the researcher or say where he is or
what he is doing now.
Dr. Stuart said the
university is considering its options for recouping the $425,000: It could wait
for a judge to order repayment conditions after a criminal trial, seek
restitution in a civil proceeding, or request reimbursement through UBC's insurance providers.
"UBC takes any and all cases of financial
impropriety very seriously," Dr. Stuart wrote. "We have a zero
tolerance for it."
Dr. Stuart said the medical
faculty's financial branch was reorganized in 2012 in response to a fraud case. John Mwotassubi, the former financial manager of UBC's pediatrics department, was
sentenced to two years of house arrest for stealing more than $450,000 in a
cheque scheme.
Dr. Stuart said all finance
staff are now required to report to senior accountants who are independent of
the departments. All transactions must have two signatures, and are reviewed
separately, finance staff now have better training and supervision, and several
more staff have been hired.
Dr. Stuart also added that
while the faculty's 2015-16 budget is more than $600-million, the impropriety
noted in the audits amounts to less than one per cent of that amount.
Separate UBC audits detailed other
financial problems, but Dr. Stuart said these occurred before the new financial
controls were installed and "the documents show gaps are being found and
closed before they are exploited."
For example, UBC auditors criticized the
university's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics for operating an
unauthorized bank account with poor controls from 2001 until it was closed in
April, 2013. The fund gave small short-term loans to staff for expenses. But
Dr. Stuart wrote that the loans were repaid and UBC found no evidence of financial impropriety.
A separate internal audit in
October, 2012, by the
Vancouver Coastal Health Authority also warned of a high risk of fraud from staff double dipping
at VCH and UBC, which could
lead to "negative publicity," a problem assigned to a high priority
red category.
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