Exclusive: The Office of Local Government has raised questions about a trip taken by 10 councillors from Canterbury-Bankstown | JordsBaker
When 10 Canterbury Bankstown councillors and four council staff went on an immersion tour of North America, the schedule was, as Mayor Khal Asfour put it at the time, “hectic”. They took in Boston, New York and Toronto “all in one week”.
The 2019 “immersion tour” of the US prompted a complaint to the office, which found that “only some travel costs were paid by the councillors”, said a confidential OLG document written soon after the trip and seen by theCanterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour, at Northcote Park in Greenacre, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing., show the trip cost ratepayers almost $146,000, including more than $105,000 for accommodation, more than $15,000 for meals and almost $24,000 for ground transport.
Asfour, who has been endorsed as an upper house candidate for Labor in the state election, is also facing allegations he breached expenses policy by claiming too much for his MBA before the council lifted the professional development allowance to a level that would cover the cost.The Office of Local Government recently issued the council with a request for an explanation. Asfour has denied any wrongdoing.
“The comments are not just someone lashing out at Khal, it is an affront and defames the character of all the staff,” he wrote.
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