Photo: Alistair Waters - file

Rose Valley Water Treatment Plant

The City of West Kelowna has been accused, in essence, of cooking the books concerning the contentious Rose Valley Water Treatment Plant.

Scott Beaton, who has been outspoken about the financial aspect of the plant, called on council at Tuesday's meeting to appoint an independent auditor to examine actual expenditures against budgeted expenditures.

“In each of the last two years, staff presented financial reports showing the city spent $20 million more than the budgeted amounts,” said Beaton.

“Both times staff said the comparisons can't be made because those budgets don't contain amortization. But, flip the page and you look at the financial statements and the budgets do contain amortization.”

Beaton also claimed the amount paid on principal and interest for debt indicated in the last two budgets was significantly lower than the actual figures.

“I also request that until the city can properly plan and budget for the future of our water, that the parcel tax recovery and the conversion to long-term debt be deferred.”

He also alleged the Rose Valley Water Treatment Plant is not operating to specifications laid out in the city’s request for proposals.

It didn’t meet Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines, he said, and upgrades to meet those specifications are still ongoing.

“Residents are angry and I have been raising these financial issues with staff and council for more than six months and things haven't changed. The issues I'm raising have serious implications.

“If they continue to be mishandled, each member of council risks being exposed to personal liability for misuse of funds and could be disqualified from holding office.”

Addressing the allegations, Coun. Garrett Millsap suggested opening the city's books to let people see for themselves.

“There have been some really serious allegations put forward tonight against council and staff and I would like to open it up and show the accounting,” Millsap said.

“From what I have seen from the experts and auditors, everything is in line. Let’s let people see that.”

Millsap also suggest hearing directly from AECOM, the company responsible for the treatment plant.

“All of what we heard was the design and functionality. ...The plant is functioning the way it was meant to function. The difference was the source water has changed with the manganese at the bottom of the source water.”

Coun. Stephen Johnston said he was uncomfortable with the allegations hurled against council and staff.

He said council has asked those questions and there seems to be conflicting understanding between council and the public.

“It is concerning and frankly I am tired of hearing about it,” Johnston said.

“What the heck is going on? How do we have allegations over here, internal staff saying something over here, auditors saying something over here, but yet we are still back at a meeting dealing with this stuff all the time."

“What I can say is there is truth and fact, and I haven't seen any submission of any truth or fact in the allegations. Allegations are a different thing and we must rise above them,” responded new city manager Ron Bowles.

Council did recently receive the yearly audited statements which Johnston said came back clean.

Council did not make any decisions concerning financial audits or hearing from the contractor.