ALEXANDRIA, Ontario – The Township of North Glengarry issued a statement Monday addressing recent suspicions of fraud in local tax accounts.
The issue has been cropping up more in recent months, with residents complaining that their accounts were being overcharged. North Glengarry’s chief administrative officer, Daniel Gagnon says that while the township initially chalked it up to human error, eventually, a pattern began to emerge.
“After the first call, we thought ‘errors happen’ – but the scale became more than just errors,” said Gagnon. “We had to kind of wrap our minds around the fact that what was going on was larger than a few mistakes,” said Gagnon.
Having corrected approximately 120 accounts to date, township staff and auditors began taking a closer look at what may have caused discrepancies of this magnitude.
Following council’s approval, the township will now begin a forensic audit, which is necessary in determining if fraud was a factor.
“With forensic audits, there’s another level of expertise,” said Gagnon. “This is their job, so the process is a little more specialized.”
The duration of the procedure is unknown, with the preliminary fact-finding phase usually lasting between one and two weeks.
Multinational professional services firm, Deloitte’s forensic specialty division will be conducting the investigation.
“So far, people have taken comfort that we’re on the scene in addressing these issues,” said Gagnon. “We need to be accountable to ratepayers, but we also have to be mindful of what we can disclose. It’s not an exact science.”
