Big-time Charity Fraud in Canada, too

By Gary Snyder

The Portland Hotel Society’s top managers stepped down under pressure from government officials over the spending reports. 

Auditors said that the Portland Hotel Society’s spending of nearly $26-million in annual taxpayer funds to run housing and addiction services—including Canada’s only supervised-injection site for drug users—was subject to lax oversight, allowing the charity’s leaders to charge lavish travel, dining, and other costs to the organization at a time when it faced financial problems. 

Managers and directors expensed more than $69,000 over three years on restaurants, and more than $300,000 on travel to Vienna, Paris, Istanbul, New York City, Los Angeles, Banff and Ottawa, among other locations. Hotel rooms of up to $880 per night were charged for trips to the United Kingdom and Austria, including flowers, alcohol and spa services.

There were also more than $8,658 in limo fees in 2013, a trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, a $5,832 cruise for a PHS manager, a $917 baby shower and a $7,025 “celebration of life” for a deceased employee.

The PHS is in a “weak financial condition” and could have trouble paying its obligations if they came due. The society would have run a $2.07-million deficit in the last fiscal year if not for a one-time cash infusion. (Source)

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