NB Liquor balks at disclosing secret pay report

A senior Progressive Conservative MLA is demanding to see a secret study into NB Liquor's executive compensation package.

The Crown corporation commissioned the executive pay review earlier in 2010 and is refusing to release the publicly-funded report, instructing CBC News to formally request the document under the Right to Information Act, a process that can take months.

Tory MLA Bruce Fitch, who was a cabinet minister in the previous Bernard Lord government and is expected to be a top player inside David Alward's government, said he wants to know the details of that report given the Shawn Graham government froze salaries of many public sector workers for two years.

"If this particular report has something different than that, then I'd be interested to see what exactly it said and what parts of it were implemented, if any were," Fitch said.

The chief executive officer's position at NB Liquor pays more than $150,000 annually and isone of the most coveted political rewards in the province. In 2006, Graham appointed Liberal insider Dana Clendenning to the job.

Clendenning replaced Barbara Winsor, who was given the position after serving as Lord's chief of staff.

Fitch said he doesn't understand why the report is secret given that executive salaries at the Crowncorporation are listed in the provincialgovernment's public accounts.

"It shows all the salaries there, so I don't know why they'd be shy in not releasing that information," Fitch said.

Graham has promised a smooth transition as the Alward Tories prepare to take over after winning the Sept. 27 election.

There is still one more Liberal cabinet meeting before Alward's Progressive Conservatives are sworn in on Oct. 12.

Controversial CEO

The report controversycomes just as the outgoing Liberal government and the incoming Tories sort out which politically appointed officials will resign and how much severance pay they'll get to leave.

Clendenning is widely expected to be on the list of deputy ministers that are on their way out.

When the Liberal government came to power in 2006, Winsor was among three deputy ministers who left during the transition period.

Clendenning has been a controversial figure during his tenure as president and chief executive officer of the liquor corporation.

He oversaw the creation of NB Liquor's own discount beer Selection Lager and Light that was meant to keep people from going across the border to Quebec to find cheap suds.

As well, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Thomas Riordon cleared Clendenning of conflict-of-interest allegations in January 2010.

But the breaches were not serious, Riordon stated in his 101-page decision, dismissing the complaint filed by Clendenning's former business associate.

Fredericton businessman Barry O'Donnell alleged Clendenning, a former executive director of the New Brunswick Liberal Party, had promised to get him government grants for his call centre business in return for a monthly fee.

When the grants didn't materialize, O'Donnell accused Clendenning of being in a conflict of interest for getting paid as a consultant-lobbyist after being appointed president and CEO of the Crown corporation in 2006.