Former speaker of the B.C. legislature Darryl Plecas has delivered a blistering denunciation of the way that senior NDP and B.C. Liberal MLAs responded to a legislature spending scandal in their last term.

Speaking on a podcast by the Breaker's Bob Mackin, Plecas said that the all-party Legislative Assembly Management Committee impaired the ability of the former chief justice to investigate former clerk Craig James and former sergeant at arms Gary Lenz.

According to Plecas, this was accomplished by narrowing Beverley McLachlin's terms of reference and giving her a tight deadline to deliver her report.

In January, 2019, Plecas recommended a "root-and-branch" workplace review in response his allegations of spending irregularities by James and Lenz.

Instead, McLachlin's terms of references confined her to only looking at Plecas's allegations, which were written in a hurry over a six-week period. 

In addition, the former chief justice could consider the written and legal responses by the two senior legislature officials, as well as Plecas's reply.

And McLachlin was required to submit her report by early May of that year.

In the podcast, Plecas also described a September 2019 investigation report by auditor general Carol Bellringer as a "complete and utter whitewash", which didn't hold anybody accountable for anything. Bellringer submitted her resignation to Plecas the same month that the report was released.

Moreover, he claimed to Mackin that the time frame for preparing the auditor general's report was also "wholly inadequate".

"It happens because the leadership of the legislature is working to structure these things so that they limit the ability to get at the truth," Plecas told Mackin. "There's no question of that."

Plecas didn't include the B.C. Greens in any of his scathing criticism. But he had unflattering words for unnamed members of the legislative press gallery.

"I would say it's fair comment to say that by and large, there are certain members of the press gallery that moved heaven and earth to trash every single thing we did and in some cases without even reading what it is they were talking about," Plecas told Mackin.

McLachlin couldn't probe earlier actions

Plecas's final 50-page report, Unfinished Business, generated considerable media attention after it alleged that the Legislative Assembly Management Committee didn't follow up on an allegation of sexual harassment. 

Government House Leader Mike Farnworth denied that it was ignored.

What hasn't received as much coverage are Plecas's revelations regarding McLachlin's probe.

He wrote that he had hoped McLachlin would be asked to look into "whether similar things had taken place prior to the time period canvassed in my Report—in other words, was this kind of stuff going on before 2017?"

"Instead, though, the House Leaders framed the 'Special Investigation' as simply to determine whether the five issues, as raised by me, constituted administrative misconduct'."

This meant that anything James did prior to September 2017 and dating back to his appointment as clerk in 2011 would not be examined.

Moreover, the threshold became whether James and Lenz had committed "administrative misconduct", which he described as a "technical term".

"It imposes a high threshold of proof, requiring consideration of activities against prevailing policies," Plecas wrote. "But to suggest that, 'there was no policy prohibiting it' cannot justify something which any reasonable person would recognize as being unacceptable (particularly in an institution in which the Clerk had a primary role in drafting the policies)."

Plecas also took particular exception to opposition and media attacks on his former chief of staff, Allen Mullin, who assisted him with his investigation of James and Lenz. Mullin filed a complaint against Lenz under the Police Act.

The sergeant at arms was subsequently found guilty under Police Act of not upholding his oath as a special constable and neglect of duty following an independent investigation by now-retired Transit Police chief Doug LePard.

Meanwhile, McLachlin found that James had engaged in 12 instances of misconduct identified by Plecas.

According to Plecas's report, this occurred even though McLachlin's time limitations meant that she could not follow up on discrepancies in evidence by recalling witnesses for subsequent interviews.

"Similarly, Mr. James and Mr. Lenz were permitted to access their emails and other records and to use those materials to defend their actions," Plecas added, "but Justice McLachlin did not require them to produce all records related to the ones they relied on, creating the possibility they could selectively present documents for their responses."

Vacation payouts given a green light

One section of the report detailed actions not deemed to be misconduct but which Plecas objected to. They included various taxpayer-financed purchases in U.K. gift shops, including cufflinks, commemorative items, and two bottles of gin.

Plus, McLachlin didn't find that payouts to James and Lenz for unused vacation days in the hundreds of thousands of dollars amounted to misconduct.

"This finding applies to years in which, in Mr. Lenz’s case, zero official days of holiday were used. Instead, Mr. Lenz and Mr. James would record significant overtime hours (self-reported, and based on a 35 hour work week) and then use those hours for holidays while taking a payout of their official vacation time," Plecas wrote.

"This concept of 'overtime' for senior managers who are being paid very large salaries, is problematic in my mind," the former speaker continued. "In other work environments, senior managers do not expect to always work a standard seven-hour day, every workday of the year.

"Moreover, longer hours at the Legislative Assembly occur on occasions when the Legislature is in session, and sometimes sits into the evening. It is in session, however, only 80-90 days per year, so the burden is scheduled well in advance, expected, and not unduly onerous."

James collected a $347,090 salary in the 2017-18 fiscal year; Lenz was paid $218,167.

"Again, claiming overtime hours as holidays and taking vacation time payouts may not have risen to the level of misconduct for the purposes of the McLachlin Report, but it reflects an approach to public resources by these officers that, in view of their very large salaries, I cannot see British Columbians being satisfied was appropriate," Plecas noted.

One of the more startling revelations in Plecas report concerns a "non-financial settlement" that James reached.

At the time, Farnworth said that it included a "mutual non-disparagement clause with the Legislative Assembly, ending his employment but not requiring him to pay back any of the benefits which Justice McLachlin had found constituted misconduct," according to Plecas.

Plecas disclosed that he was not consulted about this and he found the decision "staggering".

"I have no idea what leverage Mr. James could have possibly had to compel a 'settlement', or indeed, what notional claim he might have been 'settling,' against the Legislature," Plecas declared in his report. "The 'settlement' was announced on the very day that an independent report was tabled confirming that Mr. James had committed misconduct—which in any other workplace, to my understanding, would have presumably justified termination for cause.

"The fact that the House Leaders agreed that Mr. James could retain the nearly $260,000 payout of a 'retirement allowance' he obtained in 2012 despite Justice McLachlin finding that his procurement of the retirement allowance constituted misconduct designed to obtain for himself an improper financial benefit—alongside numerous other clothes, gifts, trinkets and the like—is incredulous to me."