Quebec intends to legislate very quickly to better monitor the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM) to curb excessive spending.
According to our information, Municipal Affairs Minister Andrée Laforest will not wait for the conclusions of the Montreal Auditor General’s (AG) investigation to act.
OCPM employees would become City of Montreal employees thanks to an amendment to the City of Montreal Charter and be subject to the same existing management and ethics policies.
We have learned that such amendments could be tabled in the National Assembly this week.
Had the OCPM been subject to the same rules as municipal officials, many of the questionable expenditures uncovered by our Bureau of Investigation would not have occurred.
Gatherings prohibited
For example, presidents Dominique Ollivier and Isabelle Beaulieu and general secretaries Luc Doray and Guy Grenier would not have had the right to hold internal meetings in restaurants.
In general, spending abroad with a City credit card would have been prohibited, such as the $347 oyster dinner that Dominique Ollivier shared with Guy Grenier for his birthday.
The OCPM’s numerous international trips should also have been approved by the Director General or one of his deputies.
Isabelle Beaulieu wouldn’t have been able to buy $900 Apple headphones because the city’s purchasing policies are much more restrictive.
Ms. Ollivier and Ms. Beaulieu could not have hired Guy Grenier without at least informing the Comptroller General of their previous business relationship, which created the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Following our revelations, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante commissioned the auditor general to conduct a performance audit of the OCPM. However, the mayor said she was unable to change the city charter.
Minister Laforest committed to following the VG’s recommendations.
interim
However, Quebec intends to act more quickly and, in particular, to expand the OCPM to include a formal interim presidency process.
Currently, nothing in the charter regulates the absence of a presidency and the nomination process is lengthy. To assess the applications, a selection committee must first be formed. The resolution must then be approved by two-thirds of the elected representatives of the local council.
It took five months for the office to have a new president after Ms. Ollivier’s hasty departure in 2021 to run for Projet Montréal.
In the meantime, it was Luc Doray, the Secretary General, who had temporarily led the organization.
With the dismissal of President Isabelle Beaulieu, current Secretary General Guy Grenier has become the de facto senior manager.
However, Mr Grenier also increased the number of questionable expenditures.
Mayor Plante and Minister Laforest have called for his resignation, but he is sticking with it. Since he is not an employee of the city, he can only be fired by the person who chairs the OCPM.
The proposed charter changes would allow a temporary leader to be appointed more quickly through a simple majority vote of the council.
In the same way, the Charter of the City of Longueuil, whose articles on the Office of Public Participation are attached to those of the OCPM, would also be amended.
The saga of the OCPM’s questionable spending
On November 3, our Bureau of Investigation revealed that current and former OCPM leaders had made numerous extravagant expenditures on restaurants and travel and that they had cultivated a culture of cronyism.
• Valérie Plante’s number 2, Dominique Ollivier, resigned as President of the Executive Committee on November 13th following our revelations.
• When she was president of the OCPM, Ms. Ollivier hired her former business partner Guy Grenier to accompany her on her foreign assignments. She also held numerous working meetings with her general secretary Luc Doray in fancy restaurants in Montreal, particularly Ibérica.
• OCPM President Isabelle Beaulieu was fired by the council on November 21 for “serious misconduct” and the organization was placed under city supervision.
• Ms. Beaulieu, who was president before the scandal broke, increased the number of work meetings at the restaurant, particularly at Chez Alexandre. She also made several expenditures on electronic devices, including $900 headphones from Apple.
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