Pan Am executives reimbursed taxpayers for parking tickets, wine, flowers

Executives on the Pan Am Games organizing committee had to reimburse taxpayers for a raft of expenses, according to documents released by the organization on Friday.

Dress shirts to orange juice and parking tickets are just some of the items officials expensed and have since reimbursed.

Pan Am executives also had to reimburse taxpayers for a wine tour and flowers.

Five thousand documents detailing five years’ worth of expenses were delivered to Queen’s Park in response to an access to information request from the Globe and Mail.

“The Freedom of Information Act has specified time frames and this is the last day we could put those out,” Toronto Pan Am CEO Saad Rafi told reporters at Queen’s Park.

“We’ve seen this movie before. This happened with the gas plant scandal. There would be dumps of documents after the MPPs were gone for a long weekend,” PC MPP Todd Smith said.

Most of these expenses were charged to purchasing cards by former Pan Am Games CEO Ian Troop who was fired in late 2013. New CEO Rafi says they’ve since cleaned up their act. He said the rules on expenses have been tightened, and he’s made it clear that executives and staff must follow the public service guidelines on such issues.

Rafi says he wants next summer’s Pan Am Games to be fiscally responsible, and something Ontarians can be proud of.

With files from The Canadian Press

TO2015 Business Expenses and Travel Policy

Mobile users click here to read the organizing committee’s expense policy.

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