45. PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP provides annual updates
for tax calculations on software used to calculate income
loss, software maintenance for the software used to calculate
loss of income claims and separate software used to calculate
and track loss of income payment caps and holdbacks, and
advice, assistance and training to the Administrator of
the Trust Fund with respect to both types of software.
46. The budget for PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP in the period
from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2001 was $26,750.00
inclusive of GST. PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP exceeded that
budget by $23,503.00. By Orders of the Ontario Superior
Court of Justice, the Superior Court of Quebec and the Supreme
Court of British Columbia, this budget over-run was paid
to PriceWaterhouse LLP.
47. By Order of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dated
May 14, 2002 interim payments to PriceWaterhouseCoopers
LLP in the amount of $2,500.00 per month, exclusive of GST,
for each of January, February, March, April and May 2002
were approved. The courts also approved payments to PriceWaterhouseCoopers
LLP for each of June, July and August 2002 pending approval
of the Annual Report.
48. By letter dated April 2, 2002, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP provided the
Joint Committee with its proposed budget for 2002. That budget was on the
basis of a calendar year to December 2002. Extrapolating for the period from
January 1, 2002 to March 31, 2003 (the fiscal year-end of the Trust Fund)
resulted in a budget of $46,125.00 exclusive of GST. This is an annual budget
of $36,900.00 or $3,075.00 per month. Attached hereto as Schedule
"N" is a copy of the PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP letter dated
April 2, 2002.
49. The net result is that the payments made to PriceWaterhouseCoopers
LLP in the first eight months of the calendar year of 2002
were less than the payments budgeted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers
LLP in April 2002. However, the Joint Committee remained
concerned that PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP not exceed the
estimate made by PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP in this fiscal
year as has been done in the prior fiscal year.
50. Accordingly, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP was asked in September 2002 to
account for its payments and expenses to date and do a new projection of costs
until the end of March 31, 2003. ThePriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP report is attachment
N1. The new budget anticipates slightly less
than the original April budget amount and reflects actual expenses incurred
since January 1, 2002. It is on the basis of attachment N1
and the reduced budget of PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP that the Joint Committee
is recommending a proposed budget of $3,460.00 per month from September 1,
2002 to March 31, 2003. The total amount which will be received by PriceWaterhouseCoopers
LLP over the period is less than the PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP budget of
April 2, 2002 and only appears to be a greater monthly amount because the
amounts paid in the first eight months of 2002 were lower than the April 2,
2002 budget.
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