A lack of policies and documentation is plaguing the municipality, according to a KPMG audit report presented to council last night. KPMG says they found an unclear and inconsistent “tone from the top” when it came to the city and administration.
“There was a strong expectation that was as a result of not having clear and well understood reporting relationships between, what you as council want to see and the administration and the administrative structure that you have in place,” said KPMG Partner John Stelter.
The Accountability, Integrity and Transparency Audit focused on eight different areas it says the city fell short on between Jan. 1, 2011 and May 30, 2014. It includes governance, council policies, living expenses and benefits, and honorariums. Senior Manager Paul Groch says when it came to living expenses and expense reports, guidelines were completely insufficient. A Canadian Taxpayers report released earlier this year uncovered more than $7 million dollars was paid out to 88 employees in about two years. Groch says when it came to handing out honorariums, it was consistently inconsistent.
“There’s no documented evidence of a policy or procedure within the municipality outlining the definition of, what services are eligible for, recommended rates, or required approvals for honorariums. Currently honorariums include payment of services and repayments for out of pocket expenses,” said Groch.
He says no one was doing anything illegal, and if that were the case, it would have been dealt with immediately. Council unanimously approved all 46 recommendations in the report, and admitted it has a lot of work to do.
“There have been changes at the senior level of the Municipality, which needed to happen, and quite frankly, some of the specific findings in the audit are concerning, and unacceptable,” said Councillor Sheldon Germain in a news release.
Mayor and council will be speaking about the audit at a news conference at 9 a.m. today. The full audit report is online at http://www.woodbuffalo.ab.ca/audit.
