The decision by city hall’s finance department to invest the Moose Jaw Police Service’s 2020 and 2021 accumulated surplus in the city’s investment portfolios without approval is not a big deal and has been known to happen, says the police chief.
“It is not a problem, as we have been working with the city financial department, and every once in a while we miss a step. It’s not right, it shouldn’t happen, but again mistakes happen and it’s corrected now,” Chief Rick Bourassa said during a recent media scrum.
The interest the accumulated surplus generated in 2020 was $27,797.76 and in 2021 was $21,239.17 for a total of $49,036.93. As of Dec. 31, 2021, the balance of the accumulated surplus was $170,275.
Bourassa said the MJPS’s funds are continually reviewed while looking for oversights.
“There are always conversations and corrections made in these situations. We have a back and forth all of the time and that is why we have people who review these things. Nobody is perfect. We make mistakes, but we catch things and correct them,” he said.
Asked if he was worried given this is the second oversight by the city with the MJPS’s money, Bourassa said he was not concerned.
“Not at all ... we go back and forth all of the time. Every process is perfect until people get involved, because none of us is perfect. That is why we have processes that are in place to correct these things. As soon as we identify (errors), we correct them,” said the chief.
At the February meeting of the Moose Jaw Board of Police Commissioners, Chief Bourassa informed the commissioners that the city’s financial department missed the carry-forward portion of the 2022–26 equipment reserve budget’s uncompleted works section. The amount missed was $159,984.
The funds have been set aside to complete the radio replacement project.
Chief Bourassa said he could not give in-depth details about how the financial mistakes were made.
“I wasn’t directly involved in the conversations, so I can’t say. I wasn’t directly involved in those conversations. I worked with a senior administrator and she has more of these conversations,” he said. “It is pretty normal in these situations (that) the math gets checked and re-checked and things get found and fixed.”
The MJPS looks after the Board of Police Commissioner’s budget. The agency does all the inputting of purchases, while the city’s finance department is responsible for issuing payments. The city also looks after the MJPS’s annual audit.