First Nations University of Canada, called a "School for Scandal" by the Western Standard in 2006, is no different in 2010. The Regina-based university fired its chief financial officer late last year. Now, he is suing for wrongful dismissal, as CanWest reports,

A lawsuit filed by the former chief financial officer of the First Nations University of Canada alleges he was marginalized and then fired in December for penning documents that detailed violations by university officials.

The documents, sent to FNUC's audit committee in November by then-CFO Murray Westerlund and obtained Friday by The StarPhoenix, allege some First Nations University of Canada (FNUC) administrators and staff have been paid out for hundreds of thousands of dollars in lieu of annual leave, contrary to university policy. There are concerns over trips to Montreal, Las Vegas and Hawaii. The documents detail alleged misuse of funds and inappropriate expense claims.

...In the documents obtained by The StarPhoenix, Westerlund alleges president Charles Pratt was paid $97,657.59 in lieu of annual leave, in violation of the stated regulations. Vice-president Al Ducharme received $81,633.29 for the same reason, and other employees received annual leave payments of more than $80,000 in total.

CBC adds,

One spending item concerns a $2.57-million teepee structure built at the entrance to the FNUC Regina building, in particular $216,000 paid to First Nations veterans and others to review plans and "monitor progress."

Westerlund called the spending inappropriate and imprudent, and shortly after sending his November, 2009, memos to university officials, he was no longer working for it.

While the university struggles (or, maybe doesn't struggle) to get its act together, students are the ones suffering most. "Our university is facing financial challenges and it is disturbing to hear that university dollars are being misused while our departments are facing cuts," said Cadmus Delorme, a spokesman for the FNUC students' association.

If university leadership fires the voices that should keep them accountable, how can the school move forward? Four years after a task force recommended sweeping changes to the governance structure of FNUniv, changes have been minimal. If the executive and administrators seem so determined to use the school as a cash cow, the province may want to invoke some heavy-handed measures, including demanding changes before giving the school more public funds. Without a clean sweep or some external structures of accountability, it's hard to see how the school for scandal will lose its tarnished reputation.