Saskatchewan gov’t reports losses for second quarter of 2020-21

Routers, a credit card, a laptop and a misappropriation of cash were involved in losses within Saskatchewan government ministries and Crown corporations in the second quarter of 2020-21.

The province reported the losses in a pair of media release Friday.

The Ministry of Health reported an employee of the Saskatchewan Health Authority with the KidsFirst program in Yorkton took public money and misused public property, leading to a loss of $89,796.

The incident occurred in July of 2017 and the individual was fired in September of that year. The RCMP was called in and charges were laid.

In October of this year, the former employee was found guilty of what the government release called “deceit, falsehood or other fraudulent means” in defrauding the SHA.

Between June 9 and July 7, four employees in the Ministry of Corrections and Policing used government-owned mobile wireless routers for non-government purposes. That resulted in overage charges totalling $8,091.42 from SaskTel.

The release said the police were called and the ministry is “pursuing collection.”

On multiple instances from December to February, a SaskTel employee used a SecurTek corporate credit card for personal items and for a cash advance. The loss amounted to $5,363.85.

According to the release, the employee didn’t submit a credit card statement for payment. The loss was only noticed after the employee resigned.

“Detailed analysis was done on all charges to the credit card,” the release said. “The incident was reported to SaskTel Security and the matter was reported to the RCMP in October 2020.”

In response to the incident, SaskTel has started online monitoring of all corporate credit card statements. As well, everyone who holds a corporate credit card from the Crown is to submit their monthly statement to Accounts Payable even if the balance is zero.

Finally, a laptop valued at $2,034 was reported missing to SaskPower on Sept. 15.

After review, it was determined the laptop was left in an area that wasn’t secured and could be accessed by numerous employees and contractors.

“After multiple attempts to locate the asset and given that this location cannot be accessed by the public, this asset has been classified as an internal theft,” the release said.

The theft was reported to the RCMP. SaskPower also has adopted a new process for better monitoring of its IT equipment.