Toronto Action for Social Change
PO Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Avenue West
Toronto, ON M6C 1C0
(416) 651-5800; e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DECEMBER 16, 1998
Auditors Arrested at Andersen Consulting Two Members of People's
Financial
Team Charged at Downtown Offices of Firm with Ontario Government
Contract
to Cut Welfare
Two members of the People's Financial Team, a subsidiary
of Toronto
Action for Social Change, were arrested while attempting to
arrange a
meeting with scandal-plagued Andersen Consulting this morning.
Charged with
trespassing were Matthew Behrens and Paul York, both of whom had
hoped to
conduct a moral audit of Andersen's books and initiate a timetable
for
cancellation of the contract which is slated to pay Andersen $180
million
for cutting even more funds out of the social assistance system.
Members of TASC have sought such a public meeting for over
a year,
as taxpayer dollars are involved and people's lives at stake. With
the
United Nations already criticizing Ontario for its initial welfare
cuts in
1995, more cuts under the aegis of Andersen's work place the
province in
further violation of many UN covenants. Andersen has refused any
such
meeting.
"Once again, Andersen wants taxpayer dollars without
taxpayer
accountability, and once again, the voices of those most affected
by this
contract-the people on social assistance-are left out on the
street,
without a consultative voice," explained Behrens, who along with
York will
be facing a court trial in 1999.
Andersen Consulting came under fire last month when a
damning
report from the Auditor General of Ontario was released. Among
other
things, the report found that the project manager at Andersen
makes $575
an hour (while people on welfare are forced to subsist on less
than $520 a
month). Andersen employees have also been billing $26,000 in
unreceipted
out-of-pocket expenses (at a time when the homeless are forced to
produce
accommodation receipts), and Andersen is billing the government
six times
what government workers are paid for similar work (this at a time
when the
Ontario government is fighting to prevent women from receiving
equal pay
for work of equal value.)
"Essentially, corporate welfare fraud has to stop, and
there's no
better example than Andersen."
For more information call 651-5800.
end
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