The City of Saskatoon says the Recovery/Investigation team that was put together to investigate the fraud incident from this summer that saw the City lose $1.04 million dollars was due to “a lack of appropriate procedures or guidelines for employees” in Accounts Payables.

The team comprised of senior civic leaders who are not directly involved in finances interviewed employees in Accounts Payables where the fraud occurred to determine what controls had been in place.

In a City report, the investigation determined that there was no malicious intent by any civic employee and that the fraud was systemic failure primarily related to a lack of appropriate procedures or guidelines for employees.

The City has since taken steps to prevent a similar incident from happening again.

The City has a court order to obtain all of the stolen funds along with an additional $25 thousand dollars awarded by the courts to help cover the City’s legal costs which are expected to be $100 thousand dollars but could rise in the event of an appeal.

The other parties involved have until December 23rd to appeal.

In August, $1.04 million dollars had been deposited into a fraudster’s bank account before it was realized a suspect or suspects were impersonating the CFO of Allan Construction, a company contracted by the city, and had their banking information changed.

The City’s Governance and Priorities Committee will review the report on Monday.