Audit Cites Lavish Expenses by Charity Serving Vancouver’s Poor

A Canadian nonprofit that has received millions of dollars in government funds to provide social services in Vancouver spent hundreds of thousands on overseas trips, limousine rides, and other luxury perks, the Vancover Sun reports, citing an audit commissioned by city and British Columbia provincial agencies.

Auditors said Thursday 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.

Earlier this week the society’s top managers stepped down under pressure from government officials over the spending reports, according to the CBC and The Globe and Mail. Mark Townsend, the charity’s executive director, said its leaders were given a choice of resigning or losing provincial contracts, which could have triggered a legal battle and put the group into receivership.