Hospital lawyer tells former CEO’s fraud trial flight passes improperly purchased
Global News
A hospital CEO's use of flight passes for personal travel was questioned early in her tenure, the general counsel of the IWK Health Centre testified.
A hospital CEO’s use of flight passes for personal travel was questioned early in her tenure, the general counsel of the IWK Health Centre testified Tuesday during the former executive’s fraud trial.
Jennifer Feron gave her evidence in the Halifax provincial court trial of Tracy Kitch, who has been charged with breach of trust and fraud over $5,000 in relation to her expense claims at the children’s hospital between 2014 and 2017.
Feron said that in May 2015 she observed Kitch’s executive assistant dealing with flights Kitch had taken in February for personal reasons but still hadn’t reimbursed.
She said she observed a similar situation in June of that year for a personal flight Kitch had taken in April, even though Feron said by then she’d informed a senior executive in the finance department about her concerns.
“You can’t have personal expenses that are three months old,” Feron said.
“I said to her (Kitch’s executive assistant) ‘You need to follow some kind of policy, not just winging it,’ ” she testified.
She added that it wasn’t her role as the hospital’s legal counsel to oversee the expense statements, but she felt she should express her concerns to the executive assistant about the use of the flight passes after she observed the practice.
Flight passes are bundles of prepaid flights that are valid within a specific region and for a certain period of time.