City council receives concerning review on Lethbridge and District Exhibition – Lethbridge [Video]

A third-party review of Lethbridge and District Exhibition has left city council upset and frustrated with the findings.

Earlier this year, the City of Lethbridge sought to review the conduct of LDE following an overhaul in management that saw the city take over governance of the organization. This came after numerous financial concerns stemming from the construction and operation of the new Agri-Food Hub and Trade Centre.

“This is extremely — and I’ll say extremely — concerning, given this was primarily a taxpayer-funded project,” said Blaine Hyggen, mayor of Lethbridge.

The report, compiled by Deloitte Canada, took five months to complete and revealed issues across five key areas. These areas included strategy and planning, project execution, governance, use of funds and council communications.

“We are alarmed and incredibly concerned with Deloitte’s findings in what appears to be significant level of mismanagement,” said Hyggen.

In fact, the report indicates serious misspending on behalf of senior executives from the former LDE governance.

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