Executive at Manitoba Crown Corporation was reimbursed for flights, hotels and more
WINNIPEG – A senior executive at a Manitoba Crown company was sometimes reimbursed twice a month for traveling to Winnipeg from his home in the Toronto area, according to figures from The Canadian Press.
The recently released detailed breakdown of expenses, which also includes hotel stays and meals, was obtained under the province’s freedom of information law and sheds more light on changes at Manitoba Public Insurance, including the departure of Siddhartha Parti.
Until this spring, Parti served as the company’s chief information and technology officer and vice president.
Following his departure last month, company officials said Parti was allowed to live in Ontario and receive travel allowance to Manitoba under an agreement approved by then-CEO Eric Herbelin.
Herbelin was fired in May by Manitoba’s public insurance board following an assessment of his workplace conduct, board chairman Ward Keith said last month.
Keith added at the time that he felt the agreement that reimbursed Parti for commuting from Toronto was not acceptable. He said Parti was then asked to move to Manitoba, but chose to resign instead.
Parti’s list of expenses includes several thousand dollars for flights between Toronto and Winnipeg over a seven-month period. A trip to Winnipeg from January 8-11 of this year included $914 in airfare. Less than two weeks later, Parti flew back to Winnipeg from Jan. 22 to 26 for $714, the document said.
Parti was also covered for hotel stays while in Winnipeg, including $990 for the visit in late January and $396 for a short stay two weeks later in early February, the document said. There were at least two refunded visits to Winnipeg in January, February, March and April. Taxi fares and meals were also covered on some visits.
“These expenses have been audited and tracked in accordance with MPI’s corporate guidelines. Since the settlement was approved by the previous president and CEO, recovery of these costs is not appropriate,” Kristy Rydz, the company’s communications manager, wrote in an email Wednesday.
“Going forward, the board expects all company officers to reside in the county, as previously stated by the board chairman, Ward Keith.”
A total of $23,500 in travel expenses have been reimbursed to Parti since April last year, the document shows, though several thousand dollars of that total were for business travel, such as a meeting with Microsoft officials in Redmond, Washington.
Attempts by The Canadian Press to contact Parti were unsuccessful. Herbelin did not respond to an interview request.
Manitoba Public Insurance has faced questions and has seen major changes in its leadership in recent months. Keith took over as chairman of the board following the resignation of his predecessor, Michael Sullivan, in May.
The company has also come under scrutiny over the past two years, mainly due to a plan called Project Nova, which aims to upgrade several technology platforms. The expected cost of the project has increased from $106 million to $290 million. The timeline has been extended from three to five years.
There are also questions about unoffered contracts. Kelvin Goertzen, the minister responsible for MPI, cited that as one of the reasons he commissioned an external assessment of the company this spring.
That evaluation is expected in December.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 5, 2023
