After being publicly accused of lavish spending by Quebec’s auditor general, SODEC head Jean-Guy Chaput said that he’s a victim of a media smear campaign and will not resign.

At a heated press conference at the SODEC offices, Chaput gave a detailed explanation for nearly every negative finding in Renaud Lachance’s report. Chaput was most frustrated by the auditor general’s comment that he leads a sumptuous lifestyle. ‘That word is not in the report,’ said the visibly rattled bureaucrat. ‘If I quit my job today, I am saying, yes, everything is true. But it’s not true. I don’t have sumptuous tastes.

‘The auditor general ignored certain facts.’

Premier Jean Charest and his culture minister Christine Saint-Pierre have both said they no longer have any confidence in the SODEC boss. Saint-Pierre asked SODEC board head Jean Pronovost to look into Chaput’s expenses after she heard rumors that he was an excessive spender. Saint-Pierre also said in the National Assembly that Chaput doesn’t have the ‘moral authority’ to continue working at the cultural agency.

Chaput says he will act swiftly to implement the report’s recommendations, and that he will stay in his job until he hears otherwise from SODEC’s board. His mandate expires Oct. 2.