Three elected officials from small municipalities in Quebec were slapped on the wrist in 2022 for making irregular credit card expenses.
According to the Quebec Municipal Commission (CMQ), elected officials should never use a credit card, because they present their municipality with a fait accompli, thus preventing any possible analysis of the relevance of an expense.
In December 2022, CMQ investigators signed two reports on the use of credit cards by the mayor of Sainte-Monique, in Centre-du-Québec, and by elected officials from Godbout on the North Shore.
If the mayor of Godbout, Jean-Yves Bouffard, had difficulty explaining purchases, some of which were made at the SAQ, the relevance of the expenses was of little interest to the CMQ in these cases.
According to the watchdog for the integrity of municipal officials, they cannot themselves conclude a contract with a supplier, which they do by paying with a credit card from their city.
-Once the transaction is made, there is no going back, adds the Municipal Commission in its reports.
Municipalities can therefore never “judge the relevance of the expenditure made, the amount of the expenditure and its compliance with municipal needs”.
Thus, according to the CMQ, the use of a credit card by a municipal elected official is simply not compatible with the law.
