I HATE ICBC

Source: Source CTV. Oct. 03 2001.

The departing president and CEO of the Insurance Corp. of B.C. has negotiated a severance deal worth almost $500,000. That’s about two years in salary for Thom Thompson, whose contract with the corporation was set to expire this month.

Finance Minister Gary Collins said Thompson signed the deal under B.C.’s former NDP government. The Liberal said the amount would have been higher had he not threatened to cancel two additional deals Thompson negotiated after his appointment in 1995.

“They were unreasonable and I wouldn’t have allowed them to go forward,” Collins said. He added that he could not provide details about the two additional deals that were made with then-ICBC chairman Bob Williams.

But Nick Geer said the two deals would have increased Thompson’s pension and severance. Geer replaced Williams as ICBC chairman and he said that Thompson was not forced out of the company.

Rumours had been circulating for weeks about Thompson’s departure and it was made official in a corporate news release on Tuesday. Thompson’s annual salary was $240,000 per annum.

ICBC’s annual revenues are approximately $3 billion. The corporation is expected to earn a $35-million profit this fiscal year, but it has been the focal point of controversy in recent month.

Last fall, ICBC bought two real estate properties as investments, spending more than $120 million. The Crown corporation proceeded without the required consent of government or filing the proper government documents.

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. will no longer sell cars that have been written off and rebuilt after the company sold nearly 100 vehicles without telling the buyers about the vehicles’ accident history.

ICBC has spent $1.8-million so far buying back the cars and giving compensation to the people who bought cars from the Material Damage Research and Training Facility since 1998, a company spokesman told CTV News.

“This is a serious matter and we have taken immediate steps to correct the situation, including making things right with customers who purchased these vehicles,” said ICBC CEO Paul Taylor in a statement.

The investigation found that ICBC “lacked clear and specific policies and procedures to govern the designation, repair and sale of vehicles from its research and training facility.”

Ninety-eight vehicles repaired at the facility were sold without letting the buyer know what had been repaired and what was new since the facility was opened in 1998.

Since then, ICBC has contacted all but two of the buyers, and promised to buy back the vehicles or have them inspected.

The company has spent some $1.8-million so far on buying back 63 vehicles and compensating their owners — some $27,500 per car, said ICBC spokesman Doug Henderson.

Eleven people have opted to keep their vehicles, he said.

“There’s no concern for safety,” he said. “People bought something they thought was something else. We owe it to the customers to make things right.”

Some employees also bought cars from the facility — and ICBC doesn’t have any standards about how those sales should have taken place.

And evidence has surfaced that some employees used the facility’s time and equipment to fix their own cars, Henderson said.

But he wouldn’t say how many employees or how many cars were fixed — or whether anyone was fired for taking advantage of their position.

ICBC has also promised to stop selling vehicles from the facility, and forbid its employees from purchasing any vehicles or repairing their own vehicles.

Source: CTV. 19 Mar. 2008

Drivers in British Columbia who renew their Insurance Corporation of B.C. coverage could face an additional charge, depending on where they live or who they allow behind the wheel.

Starting May 1, ICBC has started imposing a $25 charge if additional drivers are listed on a vehicle’s insurance.

The charge applies if the secondary driver does not own a vehicle or has less experience or a worse driving record than the principal driver.

ICBC spokesman Doug McClelland also says the B.C. Utilities Commission has officially approved the 3.3 per cent rate hike that has been in effect since last May.

In addition, the commission has approved variable increases or decreases of up to six per cent to reflect risk levels posed by certain classes of vehicle or accident rates in specific areas of the province.

McClelland says variable rates affects a very small number of drivers in rapidly growing suburban areas where increasing vehicle volume creates a higher risk of crashes.

Source: CTV

Drivers who run red lights could have their pictures taken more often under a new plan to put digital cameras at B.C. intersections.

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. and the provincial government have started to explore a plan to upgrade their film cameras and get more cameras to rotate through 120 monitored intersections.

“The program has been effective in reducing the number of crashes, and in particular reducing the number of crashes at those locations,” said ICBC spokesman Doug McClelland.

“We see savings on our claim costs,” he said. “Our investment pays for itself.”

It’s not clear yet how many cameras will be added or how much they will cost.

Right now 30 cameras rotate through 120 intersections across B.C. that have been fitted with boxes to monitor traffic.

In 2006, the cameras brought in $2.6 million in ticket revenue. The camera program costs about $1.9 million per year.

When a car enters the intersection, a flash will go off whether or not there is a camera inside, said McClelland.

“It’s not limited to tickets — this is to change behaviour in general,” he said.

The total crashes have dropped some six per cent since the program began in 1999, and the tickets issued have dropped 35 per cent between 2001 and 2005.

Ian Tootill of Safety by Education Not Speed Enforcement says the cameras cause more rear enders than they solve.

A study by the city of Regina found accidents rose by 12 per cent at intersections where red light cameras were installed.

“It causes people to do unexpected things if the cameras are there,” said Tootill.

Source: CTV

Vancouver’s Civil City Commissioner Geoff Plant wants to collect the estimated millions of dollars in outstanding bylaw violation tickets owed to the city, he said on Wednesday.

Plant wants ICBC to block the renewal of drivers’ licences or car insurance to anyone with any unpaid city-issued tickets, including parking tickets and bylaw infractions.

He plans to propose the idea to city council next Tuesday.

“Drivers licence renewal and insurance renewal is a powerful tool to ensure compliance,” Plant said.

If city council approves the idea, Plant will ask the provincial government to legislate the responsibility to ICBC.

ICBC spokesperson Doug Henderson told CTV News the organization is not in favour of the proposal.

“ICBC really isn’t interested in getting into the business of collecting fines for municipalities or cities,” he said. “To do something like that would have an impact on our business in terms of resources, as well as cost. It’s not really something we’re interested in getting involved in at this point.”

The company currently maintains a policy of not renewing licences or insurance only when a driver has an outstanding debt to the company or an outstanding motor vehicle violation, which are provincially regulated.

On Wednesday, Plant said it didn’t matter if ICBC did not like his proposal.

“ICBC is not enthusiastic about this,” he said. “But I don’t think ICBC is the decision-maker here. Ultimately the province has to decide what’s in the public interest.”

But Premier Gordon Campbell told reporters the city should find other ways of enforcing bylaws.

“The city sets its bylaws, the city sets its enforcement procedures and the city should discover how they can do that without using ICBC,” he said.

B.C. Solicitor-General John Les said the proposal could be a slippery slope.

“I mean that’s part of the problem, where does this thing stop?” he said. “ICBC is not the collection facility for Vancouver, or potentially for other cities across the province.”

Plant said he would like to see fines for parking and other bylaw offences increased to a minimum of $250, with $500 for more serious offences and up to $10,000 for the most serious offences.

The city of Vancouver originally submitted the idea, led by Councillor Kim Capri, to its Union of B.C. Municipalities in September 2007, saying its own collection of bylaw fines is “slow, expensive and labour-intensive.”

The Insurance Brokers Association of B.C. discouraged the proposal, saying insurance brokers are not enforcement officers and municipalities are better suited to act as collection agencies.

The proposal triggered widespread outrage from insurers, motorists and the media.

The agency that insures and documents cars is investigating itself for failing to document vehicles it sold from its own repair shop.

The cars were involved in accidents and then repaired — but if you bought a used vehicle from the Insurance Corporation of B.C.’s Burnaby research and repair shop, the company might not have told you about the crash.

Employees at the ICBC repair shop have been put on administrative leave and the shop shut down while the company investigates whether they failed to provide the proper documentation.

About 174 vehicles were fixed at the shop and sold to the public over the last 10 years.

ICBC won’t give details of the facility but its president, Paul Taylor, said employees would not have profited financially by keeping a vehicle’s accident history secret.

“At this stage we don’t believe this is an issue around safety,” said Taylor. “But out of utmost caution we are proposing to have all vehicles inspected.”

When a car crashes, and is written off by ICBC, it may end up here in the repair shop, a non-descript building in Burnaby.

Inside, ICBC experts use the vehicles to research new repair techniques. When they’re done, the cars are sold to the public — and ICBC is supposed to let the buyer know about the accident using a form.

But it seems ICBC employees may not have properly filled out their own form.

On Thursday, the facility was closed and protected by security guards. ICBC is contacting everyone who may have been affected.

“We’re confident we can track down the owners of these vehicles,” said Taylor.

If you bought a used vehicle from a repair shop run by the Insurance Corporation of B.C., you may get a call from them saying that there’s something you should have known when you bought the car.

If you’re buying a used vehicle and want to make sure it hasn’t been in an accident, you can check your vehicle history or get the vehicle inspected.

You’ll need your vehicle VIN, your vehicle make, model, and year. Inspections cost $20 or $59.95, and you can find out more information at an ICBC website, http://www.icbc.com/buy_car/vehicle_claims_history.asp

Source: CTV

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. has turned over more information to police about a scandal involving re-built cars, but it’s still not clear if the Mounties will launch a criminal investigation.

The scheme saw nearly 100 `written-off vehicles’ repaired at ICBC’s Burnaby shop and sold without proper documentation.

Some of the buyers were ICBC managers who may have been involved in rigged bidding.

ICBC spokesman Doug Henderson says the company initially provided the RCMP with information from an internal probe, but now it’s passed along additional details.

He says that will allow the Mounties to assess whether they need to do their own investigation, but an RCMP spokesman has said ICBC would have to make a formal complaint before a criminal investigation could be launched.

The NDP has demanded the ICBC internal probe be made public, but acting Solicitor General John van Dongen says an independent audit by PriceWaterhouseCoppers is being done and it will eventually be made public.

Source: CTV

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. says it expects to pay $825,000 in severance to workers fired for selling rebuilt cars without telling buyers about the vehicles’ damage history.

Eight workers were involved in the scheme at an ICBC research centre in Burnaby where repaired cars were sold to unsuspecting buyers or bought by ICBC staff through auctions that may have been rigged.

Related article: ICBC ignored Burnaby auto repair scam: report

Three top-level executives of the company have left since the scandal broke and the RCMP is investigating the car-sale scheme.

ICBC says of the eight workers involved, one was fired and two others left voluntarily.

Details on two other employees are being withheld because they’ve asked the privacy commissioner to decide on what information will be released.

Another three employees were reprimanded but remain with ICBC.

In July, an independent investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that a total of 55 vehicles repaired at the research facility were purchased by ICBC employees and connected parties.

PwC also found concerns about practices at the research and training facility were reported on three previous occasions, but were not appropriately investigated.

Source: CTV

Employees at the Insurance Corporation of B.C. blew the whistle on an automobile repair scam three times in the past two years — but ICBC did nothing, the company admitted Thursday.

The RCMP also announced it will investigate the scam, and B.C.’s auditor-general is considering investigating the scandal as well.

“Concerns were raised and nothing appears to have been done,” said Mike Farnworth, the NDP’s justice critic. “That is what is particularly scandalous, because this could have been nipped in the bud sooner.”

The Mounties’ commercial crime section will look into revelations from the crown insurance company that its own employees bought vehicles fixed at an ICBC facility, and that nearly 100 vehicles were sold without proper documentation.

“The aim of this investigation is to ascertain whether or not any offences were committed,” said Sgt. Susan Green.

The company faces its own internal probes and an external audit, but this is the first time the police have become involved.

Earlier this month, less than 24 hours after being appointed, B.C.’s acting solicitor-general apologized in the legislature for the scam that involved ICBC.

John Van Dongen had apologized on behalf of the government, the ICBC board, and ICBC workers not involved in the scheme, to anyone who may have purchased wrecked vehicles that had been rebuilt at an ICBC research facility in Burnaby.

“I indicated to the legislature that I would do whatever possible to return public confidence to the agency,” Van Dongen told reporters.

“I was concerned,” he said.

The scheme saw 98 ‘written-off vehicles’ repaired at ICBC’s shop sold without proper documentation. Some of the buyers were ICBC managers.

The company has promised it will no longer sell cars that have been written off and rebuilt, and will immediately report fraud, theft, and misappropriation of company policy.

ICBC board chairman T. Richard Turner told Van Dongen in a letter that the responsibility for internal investigation section of ICBC’s special investigations unit has moved to the human resources and corporate law division.

That was after the internal investigation found that the company “lacked clear and specific procedures and training to govern the designation, repair and sale of vehicles.”

Results of the ICBC probe will also be turned over to the RCMP.

An independent audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers is being done as well.

Source: CTV

A federal agency that regulates competition is looking into allegations of bid-rigging at car auctions at the Insurance Corporation of B.C.

The probe by the Competition Bureau would be the fifth investigation into the automobile repair scam that saw nearly 100 vehicles sold at ICBC without proper documentation — many of them to ICBC’s own employees.

“I received your six e-mail messages this month regarding ICBC’s vehicle auctions,” wrote Richard Robicheau, a competition law officer, in an e-mail response to a complaint from staff at the United Auto Trades Association of B.C.

“An officer from the Criminal Matters Branch will contact you about this complaint.”

UATABC president George Hancock wouldn’t say which of his members made the complaint.

But Hancock said that his members — small and medium-sized glass and auto body shops — have complained for years about rigged auctions and other questionable practices.

“It’s not in the best interests of the public what’s happening here,” Hancock told CTV News.

The newest complaint was made on April 18, after the media reported that ICBC was to be the subject of a criminal investigation by the RCMP’s commercial crime section.

ICBC is also being probed by B.C.’s auditor-general, an independent audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and is facing an internal investigation.

The scheme saw 98 ‘written-off vehicles’ repaired at ICBC’s shop sold without proper documentation.

Competition Bureau spokeswoman Marilynne Nahum said the agency investigates conspiracies that lessen competition, bid-rigging, price discrimination, and predatory pricing.

But she couldn’t comment on the specific investigation. “The competition act requires that we conduct our investigations in private,” she said.

Anyone found guilty of bid-rigging will have to pay a fine or is liable to imprisonment of a term not exceeding five years.

ICBC has not been contacted by anyone at the Competition Bureau, a spokesman said.

Source: CTV