By Dominic Abassi

Nanaimo’s chief financial officer spends twice his budget in 9 months

Feb 2, 2018 | 8:43 PM

NANAIMO — Despite already surpassing his annual budget in the first half of 2017, Nanaimo’s chief financial officer’s expenses continued to climb.

The City released expense reports for its top earning staff through the end of September of last year. CFO Victor Mema spent a little more than $15,000, more than double his annual budget of $7,500.

The second quarter report released earlier this year showed Mema had already overrun his budget through June, but he added more than $3,500 to the total in the third quarter.

The majority of Mema’s expenses related to a trip to Orlando in May for a SAP conference on the financial system the City uses. Third quarter expenses included trips to San Diego, Saskatoon and Orlando again.

While Mema expensed $6,360 for his initial trip to Orlando, a second trip for three days in October only yielded expenses of $105.

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In an email to NanaimoNewsNOW, Mema said he is over budget due to the SAP conference. He said the City is evaluating whether to transition to a new financial system or not and the decision must be made by a 2025 deadline.

“(The) process will take two years to plan and three years to fully implement. Regardless of which system the City will go with, cost estimates (are) between $3 million and $5 million.”

Previous financial statements showed Mema’s predecessor, Brian Clemens, spent an average of $2,100 per year between 2012 and 2015.

Since joining Nanaimo in Sept. 2015, Mema has expensed more than $28,000.

Over two years with his previous employer in Sechelt, Mema claimed nearly $63,000. In September 2017, the District of Sechelt filed a claim against Mema in small claims court seeking nearly $10,000.

It claimed Mema “Charged a significant number of items to the District credit card without proper approval from his supervisor…These unapproved items were personal in nature and not related to legitimate District business.”

At the time, Mema said the claim was “essentially incorrect” and pointed to a counter-claim he had against Sechelt.

Based on a City announcement in 2016, the latest release of expenses was more than two months behind schedule. However, Mema previously denied that there was a delay because he said there was no formal policy dictating the report be released twice a year, including in November.

Meanwhile, all other mangers whose expenses were disclosed were within their budgets through Sept. 30 of last year. The nine other staff listed in the report spent an average of $2,500 through the first nine months of 2017.

Final 2017 expenses will be released later this year with the City’s annual financial report.

dom@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @domabassi