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The missing millions, Royal Canadian Mint scandal

by Jessica Tucker | December 22, 2009 at 05:13 am

605 views | 59 Recommendations | 9 comments

Mathematics, one of the most rudimentary skills every human will have to learn one way or another over their lifetime. After the release of reports this morning and a whopping "$1.3 million in audits", one might say the Canadian Mint needs to take a trip back to third grade again and pay attention.

Royal Canadian Mint executives will not get their bonus pay for last year after investigations into how millions of dollars' worth of the precious metal was lost revealed it had never gone missing.

Once questioned, management found many avenues to cover up for the missing millions blaming the loss largely on the banner year for the gold market and an excessive amount of slag, or gold by-product. Reviews released from the Crown on Monday reported that, in regards to the impeding discrepancy that at least a few of the missing millions never even left the Mint and was simply miscounted.

The great Canadian gold heist has turned out to be a $15.3 million combination of bad counting, bad cleaning and sales of gold slag below market value.

Changes are now being implemented at the Mint to prevent similar issues for occurring. Although the actual reported loss was a reported $7 million less that initially expected, the fact of the matter still stands, how did almost a quarter of a million dollars be miscounted and 'lost' by the Royal Canadian Mint?

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Uwe Paschen

at 05:30 on December 22nd, 2009

"Liberal MP Bonnie Crombie (Mississauga-Streetsville), critic for Crown corporations, suggested third-party firms be called in regularly to oversee the counts.

"The good news is there is no theft at the mint. Bad news? It can't count," she said."

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 07:02 on December 22nd, 2009

Thanks for bringing this story Jessica. So much for basic arithmetic.:)

Jessica Tucker

at 07:23 on December 22nd, 2009

Thank you, Guys!

Amy Judd

at 13:02 on December 22nd, 2009

Oh how sad they won't get their bonuses, we all feel so sorry for them... hmmm

Jessica Tucker

at 08:18 on December 23rd, 2009

Thanks for the giggle this morning, Amy!

Roman Schneider (not verified)

at 11:30 on January 5th, 2010

Maybe there was a mistake, but we have to face, that the mint doubled the profit in 2008 (against 2007) and that even after the loss they earned money... AND they are producing wonderful coins AND they are producing gold coins and bars, the only solution against the world economic crisis