LPS Chief Shahin Mahdizadeh (Lethbridge News Now)

By Justin Goulet / David Opinko

$1.6-million was unaccounted for

No criminal charges against ARCHES, but province won’t resume funding for SCS in Lethbridge

Dec 23, 2020 | 9:17 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – While ARCHES will not face any criminal charges for not being able to account for $1.6-million in taxpayer funds earlier this year, they should not expect grants from the province to return any time soon.

Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) has concluded its investigation into allegations of financial improprieties at the Lethbridge Supervised Consumption Site (SCS)

In July, the provincial government turned over findings of an independent audit to LPS to investigate. During that process, more than $1.6 million in provincial funds were unaccounted for.

The missing funds lead to the Government of Alberta pulling all of its funding from the SCS, eventually causing the site to shut down.

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In the end, LPS Inspector Pete Christos says they were able to find all of the missing money.

“The initial information that was brought forward, [the provincial auditors] didn’t have access to the means that we did. We wrote production orders to financial institutions, and through those records, we were able to account for all of those missing funds.”

Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh says their Economic Crimes Unit worked with government officials, auditors, the ARCHES board of directors, and the Specialized Prosecutions Branch for a “lengthy and comprehensive investigation.”

Several interviews were conducted as part of this process.

Christos confirmed that the money was in official ARCHES accounts the entire time.

The Alberta Justice Specialized Prosecutions branch supported the findings of LPS and did not recommend criminal charges as “there wasn’t a reasonable likelihood of conviction and prosecution would not be in the public interest”.

A portion of the statement emailed to LNN from the Associate Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions reads as follows:

“This government expects organisations that provide services with taxpayer’s money to meet high standards of accountability and transparency. Taxpayers expect a higher standard than the absence of criminal charges for how their money is spent.”

“The Deloitte audit found poor organizational management and several instances of non-compliance with the grant agreement, including high executive salaries, significant abuse of taxpayer dollars, European conferences, and staff entertainment. As such, we will not be reconsidering our decision to end the grant agreement.”

The government says they are continuing to work on a long-term strategy for people struggling with substance use in Lethbridge and hope to provide updates in the coming months.

At the time of publication, the ministry said they have not completed their review of the LPS report.

LNN has reached out to ARCHES for comments.

(Lethbridge News Now)