Most credit card charges by NTI president 'personal'
Jack Danychuk
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Jan 15/01) - For 10 months last year, Paul Quassa lived the life of a high-paid executive to the hilt, charging almost $30,000 in hotel rooms, dinners and bar tabs to a credit card issued by Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.
According to documents obtained by News/North, Quassa could claim only $2,091.96 as NTI businesses expenses. The rest was personal, including $13,331.26 in cash advances.
It almost cost him his job.
The NTI board suspended Quassa and it was only his apology and payment of his debt to the corporation that preserved his position.
"I will await your decision with an optimistic point of view, that I have learned a lesson from this exercise, that we have to be aware on (sic) these processes aside from our daily responsibilities as political leaders of Inuit," he wrote on Nov. 9 and signed off as "Your Humble President."
He apologized again on Nov. 28: "My life is too short not to live up (to) the expectations of all. I will live up to your expectations and much more. I know I can do it by being humble and to know there is someone who is greater than all of us, and that is our Creator."
In another, Quassa gave his word to the board that "I will not charge any items of a personal nature, take an (sic) advances or due (sic) anything that would again allow this type of situation to occur."
"It was never my intention to use the money of the beneficiaries for my personal use. I thought of it as a loan...I was wrong in my actions and give assurance that it will never happen again."
During the spending spree, Quassa dined out almost daily. He charged $56.68 at the Frobisher Inn "preparing for CBC interview" and $106.48 at the Empire Grill in Ottawa on a "business lunch with Nunatsiaq News reporter."
He used the card for purchases on an Ottawa shopping trip. On Feb. 18, he rang up personal purchases at Tip Taylors ($296.70) and Bata Shoes ($79.33) and Ashton ($225.98). On Feb 21 in Ottawa, he spent $91.99 at Feet First, and $129.90 at Athletes World.
And he went to automated tellers again and again to withdraw cash. Last year between March 25 and April 7, he hit cash machines a dozen times for more than $2,000. Between Aug. 14 and Aug. 30 he was at the ATM 13 times a took away $2,560.
A final accounting for the January to September spree put the total for personal expenses at $11,360.80, another $3,604.23 for entertainment; cash advances of $13,331.26 plus service charges of $531.94.
It is commonplace in government and the private sector to require receipts for travel and meal expenses, but Quassa said in the memos to the board that he was unaware of procedures at NTI.
Quassa said he did not learn of it until he was suspended and told the board in a letter that "this was the very first time I had seen this procedure written down.
"I should have been informed of this right at the start of my term."
