Laurentian University ended up in the 2018 Ontario Auditor General's report released just before Christmas because it double-billed the province — accidentally, the school says — for disability services funding for six years.
It has offered to repay the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities $258,881 (the $219,197 it overbilled, plus a penalty) over five years in equal installments.
The report said between 2011 and 2017, the university was applying grant money provided by OSAP’s Bursary for Students with Disabilities toward services the university was already being funded for by the Integrated Accessibility Fund for Students with Disabilities program.
“In essence, the university was double-dipping by making disabled students pay for services that the government had already funded,” the auditor general's report said.
The issue was first noted through a formal email complaint to the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities in April 2016 by a former student and bursary recipient.
The ministry had previously inspected the institution in October 2013, two-and-a-half years before the student complained in April 2016, the report said. However, the issue went undetected.
Asked how this could happen, Serge Demers, Laurentian's interim vice-president, academic and provost, said the funding is a “complex set of envelopes that until you do basically a line-by-line, you will not be able to see those kinds of numbers.”
“And it's not as though it was $500,000 per year either,” he added. “It was a much smaller amount of money. Not insignificant, but a much smaller amount of money.
“I don't think it's that unusual that it would have not caught the eyes of anyone at the institution or at the ministry during their audit.”
He said the ministry has changed its audit process to catch such issues in the future, and Laurentian has provided further training for the individuals responsible for this area.
As for the repayments, this actually hasn't started yet — Demers said he suspects that's part of the reason why this situation ended up in the Auditor General's report.
“I guess nine or 10 months ago, we were in discussions with the ministry to identify how we would move forward with a repayment,” he said.
“At this point in time, we still haven't received any further information. There has been a government change, so that may explain part and parcel the delay.”
He said part of the university's discussions with the ministry has been to make the repayment “the least painful for student services at Laurentian.”
Asked if he thinks the university should issue an apology for the situation, Demers said the money was being used for student services, although it wasn't an approved use under the guidelines.
“In that sense, there was a service provided to students for the money that the government has provided us,” she said. “We just didn't use it from the right envelope.”
If you'd like to read the section of the Auditor General's report pertaining to Laurentian, visit the section on OSAP, and go to page 25 and 26 of the 38-page document.
