The children’s aid society executive accused of “excessive and questionable spending” on a $90,000 Toronto hotel bill says she will be reimbursing some of those expenses.

Colette Prévost confirmed to the Star that she is the unnamed executive whose spending was criticized in the auditor general’s report Wednesday.

She became CEO of the York Region Children’s Aid Society in April. But at the time of the expenses, Prévost was head of the Children’s Aid Society of the Districts of Sudbury and Manitoulin. Like all of Ontario’s 47 societies, it is a privately run but provincially funded agency.

Asked by the Star if she was the executive who spent $90,000 on a Toronto hotel bill, Prévost replied in an email that she “was performing work in Toronto and my expenses were paid by the Sudbury CAS.

“As you will note from the AG’s report, all expenses were board approved. Those expenses that were outside of the Sudbury CAS’s policies I have taken responsibility for and I am reimbursing,” Prévost added.

She did not detail which expenses she has agreed to pay back and did not respond to requests for a phone interview.

The Sudbury and Manitoulin society’s executive director, Elaina Groves, said the board “approved a long-term hotel accommodation in Toronto” to be used by Prévost and other society officials who “routinely travel to Toronto.” It was negotiated “at a significantly lower cost than the daily hotel room rate. However, the unit was not utilized as anticipated.

“The board accepts responsibility for this oversight and has put in new procedures and policies to ensure all travel expenditures be more closely reviewed,” Groves said in a statement to the Star.

Prévost’s approved expenses are an example, critics insist, of the lack of oversight throughout Ontario’s child-protection system. Asked specifically about the expenses, Ontario’s Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth accused the provincial government of failing to hold societies accountable.

“The auditor general’s report demonstrates what we have known to be true for a long time; that the government has a reluctance to take ownership and responsibility for a system that protects children in this province,” Irwin Elman said in a statement to the Star. “That reluctance has to stop now.”

The auditor’s report describes a child-protection system riddled with problems, from improperly conducted investigations into child abuse to a Ministry of Children and Youth Services failing to fully enforce standards. Societies also fail to make mandatory checks of the Ontario Child Abuse Register, which would signal if caregivers have a history of abuse.

Prévost worked at the Sudbury society from 2008 to early 2015 and managed $36.2 million in provincial funding in the 2014-15 fiscal year. The society completed 1,875 abuse and neglect investigations that year and had an average of 446 children in the care of foster parents or group homes.

She was earning $154,377 a year when Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk began auditing children’s aid societies from November 2014 to June 2015.

Auditors reviewed executive credit card expenditures and “identified excessive and questionable spending by its former executive director being approved by the Society’s board,” the auditor’s report says.

The ministry has now launched its own audit of those expenses.

“We are very concerned about any inappropriate use of funds. That is why we have asked for the government’s audit department to review these expenses in greater detail,” the ministry said in a statement to the Star.

The auditor’s report cites a hotel room rented in Toronto for a two-year period, but used only 50 per cent of the time. “The hotel rental was on a lease agreement paid directly by the agency,” said Sudbury society official, Joline Gaudette.

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The $90,000 hotel bill included more than $10,000 in “incidentals” such as parking and telephone charges, all paid by the Sudbury society. The auditor noted that leasing a condo would have been considerably cheaper.

“I was commuting regularly to Toronto to represent northern agencies on province wide projects and initiatives,” Prévost said.

The auditor said the expenses lacked documentation that would “support that they were incurred for Society business.”

At some point, Prévost’s $600 monthly car allowance was made part of her executive salary. Yet the auditor found $14,000 in car rental charges were reimbursed to Prévost in the past year. The expense included $1,000 a week for a three-week rental.

“The society could not provide an explanation for incurring such an excessive and extravagant cost for a weekly rental,” the auditor’s report says.

The report makes clear that Prévost agreed to reimburse expenses inconsistent with the Sudbury society’s policies, such as “excessive and unsupported meal expenses,” after auditors notified the board of directors.

A trained social worker, Prévost has spent 30 years working in the social services and mental health sectors. In announcing her move to the York Region children’s aid society, York’s board chair Jill Moore had high praise for Prévost.

“We chose Colette because she is a proven leader in the child welfare sector, with a strong organizational vision, and the ability to bring people together,” Moore said at the time. “Colette shares our enthusiasm and commitment to champion the care and protection of children and youth, and the well-being of their families in our community.”

The auditor’s report also cites another children’s aid society, where a recent review by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services found “many questionable expenses” reimbursed to its CEO. The unnamed society’s board of directors also approved advance retirement payments before the CEO retired, a violation of ministry policies.

The ministry is working with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies to implement “performance indicators” that test whether board directors— all of whom are volunteers — are capable and qualified. The ministry also recently began reviewing the expenses of societies.

“The ministry expects that public funds are used to promote the safety, well-being, and success of children and youth, and will remain relentless in this pursuit,” the ministry statement said.