Fired B.C. Lottery chief was paid performance bonus

A CBC investigation has revealed the former head of the B.C. Lottery Corp. andseveral vice-presidents were paid aperformance bonus the same year the CEO was fired over allegations of retailer fraud.

The payouts were for work performed between April 2006 and the end of March 2007, a period for which an ombudsman's report criticized the corporation's handling of prize payouts, retailer win-rates, and customer complaint training.

The report said officials failed to protect consumers from possible fraud by ticket retailers, citing examples of retailers winning thousands of dollars at a much higher rate thanthe public at large.

Following the ombudsman probe, which was released in May 2007, Solicitor GeneralJohn Lesordered an audit to examine the corporation's management and the lottery system's vulnerability to potential fraud. Les is responsible for the lottery corporation.

He also ordered the corporation to freeze all bonus payments to CEO Vic Poleschuk, pending the results of that audit.

Then, in June 2007 the board fired Poleschuk, citing the need for a leadership change.

At that time Poleschuk received $735,000 in severance and other pay, excluding the bonus.

Then in December 2007, the board awarded the bonuses. The results of the government audit were never publicly released.

BCLC is refusing to disclose how much the executives received, but acting CEO Dana Hayden said the corporation has a contractual obligation to pay bonuses when executives meet their annual targets.

"The way bonus system works at BCLC is that there are a number of goals that are established for the president and CEO and for the vice presidents, and that's in essence, a contractual commitment that the organization made, and those were set in the beginning of 06-07," Hayden said.

Poleschuk won't be eligible for any further bonuses, a spokesman for the corporation said.

Harry Lali, the NDP critic for the lottery corporation, told CBC News he's astoundedthe executives qualified for bonuses.

"What kind of a government would actually pay bonuses to people when all sorts of allegations are flying and the system has been broken down over the last couple of years?" asked Lali.

Les refused to comment on the matter when the CBC contacted his office.