The director of finance for the North Shore Disability Resource Centre has resigned in disgrace after he was expelled from the Certified General Accountants Association of B.C. last week.
Kenneth Eng submitted his resignation after the association's appeals panel upheld an earlier ruling that he had committed a number of unethical practices during his time with a previous employer, the private Vancouver school Fraser Academy.
"He offered his resignation and I accepted it," said Liz Barnett, the NSDRC's executive director of contracted services. "It's about the agency's commitment to great practices and compliance. A CGA brings a certain level of skill and credentialling with it."
Barnett said she couldn't comment on when the registered charity became aware of Eng's troubles. He joined the centre in June of 2010.
In a statement, the CGA Association of B.C. wrote that Eng had "used his employer's credit card to purchase personal items and subsequently concealed these expenses, approved expense reports that he knew or ought to have known were false and misleading, and prepared monthly financial statements based on information that he knew or ought to have known was false and misleading."
The association found that between January of 2003 and August of 2006, Eng had bought $80,000 worth of personal items using the school's money. Both he and his immediate supervisor were sued by Fraser Academy, and Eng also faced court action from his professional association.
As well as being barred from presenting himself as or acting as a certified general accountant, Eng was fined $10,000 and must also pay $18,954 in costs for his disciplinary and appeal hearings.
Barnett said the resource centre is in the process of finding a contracted CGA to step in on an interim basis.
"We are unaware of any problems. Our audits are clean and have been and we foresee no problems in this area. We've had clean audits for our entire existence and we have no reason to expect anything different.
"It's been very, very shocking," she said. "I will say that. We were really taken by surprise."
