Financial review finds TransLink has "significant operational issues"
Jonathan Fowlie and Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun
Published: Friday, November 06, 2009
VICTORIA - TransLink is plagued by "significant operational issues" and has not done enough to manage its finances, B.C. comptroller-general Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland wrote in a report released Friday.
"Inaction by TransLink and the Mayors' Council to maintain a balance between expenses and revenues has brought TransLink to a point at which substantial operating deficits in 2010 and beyond will be difficult to avoid," wrote Wenezenki-Yolland.
She said TransLink should have taken "earlier actions" to contain its rising costs.
The report comes just two weeks after regional mayors voted down TransLink's request for $450-million per year to pay for expanded services. Instead, they approved only $130 million, which they said at the time will keep the system on life support.
It also comes one day after TransLink CEO Tom Prendergast announced his resignation.
In her report, Wenezenki-Yolland also looked into B.C. Ferries. She found "operations to be well managed and reasonably effective," though did find executive compensation to be "significantly higher than that paid by several several larger public sector entities."
Wenezenki-Yolland called in her report for a joint Transportation Commission to oversee both TransLink and B.C. Ferries.
"A properly resourced, larger Transportation Commission with a broader mandate would be in a position to provide a stronger, more consistent regulatory approach to these vital transportation systems," she wrote.
The report recommends that the Mayors' Council be converted into a transit authority with 20 per cent of the members appointed by the province.
It suggests the this board should be given responsibility for board appointments, setting board renumeration and overseeing the board while not assuming a management role.
"The Mayors' Council/Authority will need to embrace their responsibility to provide a transit system that not only provides the highest quality of service but remains financially sustainable," the report said.
Meanwhile, the board and executives at B.C. Ferries get paid too much and it's too easy for officials to earn bonuses, B.C.'s comptroller general says in the report.
The report said president David Hahn's compensation last year was more than double that at larger public sector bodies. Executive bonuses also were easier to attain than auditors would have expected, the report said.
The board's compensation is also "excessive," with a retainer that is three to five times higher than permitted at B.C. Crown corporations, the report said.
The auditors' concerns were compounded, they said, by the fact that the board decides its own pay scale, and approves executive salary without proper accountability.
jfowlie@vancouversun.com
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