File photo of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
A specialized RCMP crime unit has joined a police investigation into alleged financial improprieties worth up to $5-million at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Dentistry.
Investigators from the Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit of the RCMP are working with members of UBC's RCMP detachment to review documents and assess the likelihood of pursuing charges in relation to the probe, Sgt. Drew Grainger of the campus detachment said on Friday.
"We are working through the documents that have been provided to us from the university and reviewing them and trying to see if we can move towards presenting a package to crown counsel," Sgt. Grainger said.
"It's an enormous piece of work to go through, and we have several officers working on it in concert with our organized crime people," he added.
Police have said the investigation could involve up to $5-million.
FSOC joined the investigation – which UBC publicly disclosed in April – about two months ago, Sgt. Grainger said.
The investigation concerns alleged financial irregularities in the faculty's general practice residency program, a one-year program in which a small number – fewer than a dozen this year – of post-graduate dentists work at hospital and community clinics in B.C.
Those clinics include sites in Vancouver, Haida Gwaii, where UBC's Faculty of Dentistry has had a presence for more than a decade, and Vietnam.
UBC says concerns surfaced last summer, when senior administrators were told of "suspected financial irregularities" involving the GPR program.
After an internal investigation confirmed the possibility of "irregularities," the university passed its concerns on to the RCMP in February. UBC is co-operating with the investigation.
The GPR program had been overseen by UBC faculty, including Christopher Zed, who was associate dean of strategic and external affairs at UBC's faculty of dentistry before leaving that position in December. The same month, he also left his position as head of the VGH Department of Dentistry, which is run by Vancouver Coastal Health and is part of dental education programs at UBC.
In keeping with privacy legislation, neither UBC or Vancouver Coastal Health have provided any information about why Dr. Zed left.
To date, police have not named him or anybody else as a person of interest in relation to the investigation.
Recent attempts by The Globe and Mail to reach Dr. Zed have not been successful.
The website for the GPR program says "the community clinic program has been completely revised and is now limited to a few carefully pre-selected, 100 per cent on site, mentored opportunities that offer the best educational and training experiences."
Residents can expect to spend five to 10 days throughout the year in and around Vancouver or in an associated rural environment, such as Haida Gwaii, the site states.
Some residents may also be selected for a two-week rotation in Vietnam.
Wendy Stueck