The investigation into B.C.’s troubled public housing agency has found “mismanagement related to a conflict of interest” between B.C. Housing’s former CEO and his wife, the head of a non-profit housing agency that has received tens of millions in taxpayer dollars.

During a speech in the legislature Monday, Premier David Eby said Shayne Ramsay, who resigned in August after 22 years as CEO, was “actively breaking the conflict of interest agreement” that he was not to be involved in decisions related to Atira Women’s Resource Society, which is led by Janice Abbott.

Atira is a Vancouver-based non-profit that has received more than $120 million in B.C. Housing funding since 2018 to operate hundreds of units of non-market housing and deliver social programs to vulnerable residents.

Eby said it was “profoundly concerning” that Ramsay had sent text messages to staff directing that Atira receive government funding. That violated the conflict of interest screen that barred him from discussing those projects because of his relationship with Abbott. The two married in 2010.

The Ernst and Young report found 24 cases where Ramsay directly communicated with B.C. Housing employees related to Atira. Both Ramsay and the agency’s former chief financial officer, Abbas Barodawalla, had a pattern of deleting text messages relating to funding decisions. Barodawalla was fired before the report was released.

Eby said Barodawalla was dismissed without cause earlier this year and work is underway to take back the severance paid to him. Ramsay, who earned a salary of $357,438 in the 2020-21 fiscal year, was not paid severance.

“I also want to point out the lengths to which the CEO went to prevent the public and government from knowing about this behaviour, altering the minutes of meetings and deleting text messages,” Eby said during a news conference in Victoria.

Keep reading on theprovince.com

• 
•