OPG probes ex-chair's missing expense receipts

- Ontario Power Generation Inc. has hired a forensic accounting firm to probe 18 months of missing receipts for expenses rung up by the company's former $250,000-a-year chair, William Farlinger.

"The board of OPG has brought in a forensic accounting firm, Kroll, to investigate the situation," Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said in an interview. "I'm monitoring the situation very closely."

OPG released 1,400 pages of Farlinger's expense records recently in response to freedom of information requests. The new Liberal government made OPG subject to freedom of information rules in December, after the Tories had exempted the provincially owned firm.

Good food, good wine and good company were all in the mix when Farlinger entertained, charging the expenses to the account of taxpayer-owned OPG, according to the records.

For example, Nov. 20, 2000, was not a good night for the Toronto Raptors, as they were pasted 100 to 64 by the Charlotte Hornets.

But the stinker of a game was easier to take for blue-chip occupants of the Ontario Power Generation box that night at the Air Canada Centre. The guest list as recorded included then-premier Mike Harris and companion Sharon Dunn as they sipped an $80-a-bottle Cabernet Sauvignon.

Farlinger, wife Esther and their eight guests ran up a tab of $1,501.53, more than one-third of which — $582 — was for wine.

Three of the bottles cost $80 a pop; the others upward of $57. Other names listed on the records for that night were Andy Brandt, former Tory cabinet minister turned chief executive of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario; Senator Trevor Eyton, a director of Brascan Corp., which, like OPG, is in the electricity generation business; and Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion.

In the light of OPG's financial performance over the last couple of years, "I don't like it," Duncan said of the company's continuing lease on the ACC box, which he and the board have directed should be dispensed with.

"These people don't seem to understand the value of a dollar." "This stuff all works its way back onto the taxpayer. By July of this year, we're going to be virtually out of cash. This kind of thing is utter nonsense."

Here's a sample of events where Farlinger played host to provincial politicians and other powerful people within months of the Hornets-Raptors blowout:

April 4, 2000: Farlinger hosts 10 at a Raptors game at the ACC. Guests include Harris, his chief of staff David Lindsay, cabinet minister Jim Wilson and financier Steve Hudson of Newcourt Capital. OPG's tab for food and drink: $1,340.84.

Aug. 31, 2000: Farlinger and his wife host four other couples at an unspecified "Shaw Festival Event" at the Queen's Landing Resort in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Their guests, according to the records, include Eyton and his wife, and John Mayberry, then chief executive of Dofasco Inc., and his wife. Tab for the event: $3,545.91. The record doesn't say whether the bill included hotel rooms or not.

Sept. 19, 2000: Farlinger hosts a party of 13 in a SkyDome box. The guest list names Tory cabinet ministers Jim Wilson and Norm Sterling. Food and drink tab: $2,132.20.

Sept. 24, 2000: The Farlingers take eight guests to see Tina Turner at the Air Canada Centre. They include Steve Hudson and his wife, and Michael Sopko, chief executive of Inco Ltd. Food and drink tab for eight: $1,691.42.

Farlinger was a close associate of Harris, serving as co-chair of the transition team that installed the Conservatives in office after their 1995 election victory. He was formerly chair of the accounting giant Ernst and Young.

Farlinger, whom the Star could not reach for comment last night, wrote a report for the province in July, 1995, calling for privatizing Ontario Hydro's generating assets. That November, Harris named him Ontario's Hydro's chairman.

In 1997, Farlinger made headlines by criticizing the performance of his own company, saying Hydro's poorly performing nuclear stations were being run by "some sort of nuclear cult."

When the province broke up Ontario Hydro, splitting its generating assets from its transmission wire operations, Farlinger became chairman of Ontario Power Generation Inc. at a salary of $250,000 a year. He held the post until last month, when Duncan, the incoming Liberal minister, fired him and other key executives.

Expense records for the events show some patterns other than the guest list of Tory cabinet ministers (who included Norm Sterling, Elizabeth Witmer, Ernie Eves and life partner Isabel Bassett).

On April 18, 2001, for example, when Farlinger's party of 10 took in a Leafs game, the bill was $1,088.78. One guest had caribou at $45 a plate; another had a "platinum" hot dog at $4.25.

Chocolate strawberries show up frequently, at $50 a platter. SkyDome's $264 oyster cart is mentioned once, when the Blue Jays played the Yankees on Sept. 4, 2001. The Jays won a 14-0 laugher.

As for the future of the ACC box, Duncan said, "They're having trouble getting out of the lease. I've indicated any tickets are to go to charitable organizations and kids that otherwise wouldn't get a chance to go to a hockey game."