Conseil
8 April 2009 / le 8 avril 2009
Submitted by/Soumis par : Alain Lalonde, Auditor General/Vérificateur
général
Contact Person/Personne ressource : Alain Lalonde, Auditor General /
Vérificateur général
(613)
580-2424 x14226, Alain.Lalonde@ottawa.ca
That Council receive this report for information.
Que le Conseil municipal prennent
connaissance du présent rapport à titre d'information.
On March 11, 2009 Council approved the following
motion:
Moved by
Councillor A. Cullen
Seconded
by Councillor R. Bloess
WHEREAS
from December 10, 2008 to January 31, 2009 the City of Ottawa experienced a
strike by ATU 279, representing OC Transpo bus drivers and mechanics; and,
WHEREAS
OC Transpo acquired both direct cost savings and revenue losses from this
strike, as well as other costs associated with this strike being charged to the
OC Transpo budget (including Council-approved mitigation measures and
resumption of service fare incentives, among others); and,
WHEREAS
there have been a number of estimates presented to City Council and published
in the media regarding the cost and purported "savings" from this
strike; and,
WHEREAS
the Auditor General has indicated that he is able to conduct an audit within
his existing resources;
THEREFORE
BE IT RESOLVED THAT City Council request the City Auditor General to conduct an
audit of the costs to OC Transpo and the City of Ottawa as a result of this
strike;
AND
FURTHER the Auditor General be directed to report back to Council with an
indication of the timelines and the impact undertaking this audit would have on
the current workplan;
AND THAT
such an audit be reported to Transit Committee and City Council and include the
direct costs (including revenue losses) and savings of the strike to OC Transpo
for both the 2008 and 2009 budgets (including the Council-approved mitigation
measures and resumption of service fare incentives) as well as the other costs
to the City of Ottawa associated with the strike for both the 2008 and 2009
budgets.
CARRIED
Direction
to Staff
That the Auditor General be directed to look at using the City’s External Auditor, Ernst and Young as a cost effective way of carrying out this audit. Should the Auditor General choose not to use Ernst and Young, that he report back to Council as to the reasons why.
In accordance with this motion and the direction to
staff, this report is presented to outline the timeframe and resourcing for the
requested audit.
The
Auditor General has met with representatives from Ernst and Young. It was determined that, while Financial
Services had contacted the firm following the March 11 meeting of Council, no
discussions have taken place regarding the audit of transit strike costs and no
work is either planned or underway with regard to this audit. The work that is currently underway by Ernst
and Young is that of the annual attest audit which would not provide any
particular benefit to the completion of the requested audit of transit strike
costs. As such, the Auditor General has
concluded that utilizing Ernst and Young for this audit will not generate any
cost efficiencies.
The approach to the audit by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) will be similar to that used for the Audit of the 2006 Sewage Spill in that the audit will be conducted using internal resources supplemented by external technical expertise as required. The audit will be completed within the existing budget of the Office. It is anticipated that the audit will be completed and presented to Council at its meeting of November 25, 2009.
No public consultation was necessary in preparing this report.
The audit will proceed as indicated above.