http://www.alanhalberstadt.com/
The Big Reveal on the WFCU Audit has arrived in the mail. Tucked in the back of Council’s first Executive Committee Agenda, to be discussed Monday, May 30 at 6 p.m., is a recommendation from the lame duck Audit Committee for Council to approve the hiring of KPMG, at a cost of up to $80,000, for the resourcing of the Auditor General Office to complete the WFCU Centre audit.
Appendix A, attached to “Report No. 49, is a letter of engagement from a KPMG official, to lame duck audit committee chair Max Zalev, dated way back on April 20. It states that work on the Audit, inherited from sidelined Lead Auditor Angela Berry, “will start immediately and be completed by June 15.”
Angela is off work and has filed a violence in the workplace complaint against City Council and the lame duck audit committee which includes Zalev. It seems clear that Zalev, who was previously deemed by Council as ineligible to serve on the audit committee because he is employed by a city agency (EnWin), is hanging around to deliver the WFCU audit.
Here’s another question. How could KPMG’s work begin before Council’s formal approval? Mere formalities don’t seem to count for much around City Hall these days.
It appears we are about to learn what AGO experts meant, ironically including Windsor Audit Committee Vice-Chair Bill Carter, when they advised Council that accounting firms will cost a lot more and work a lot less than in-house staff conducting the business of the AGO.
The Council majority has gone ahead with the outsourcing anyway, and now it is likely that taxpayers will be paying KPMG more than $40,000 a month for the arena audit. When the audit is complete, supposedly in three weeks, it will be interesting indeed who gets to vet this potentially explosive document before it goes public.
In an interesting debate on April 18th, Mayor Francis and most of Council spoke in favour of direct reporting to Council, suggesting that the auditor generals in Ottawa and Toronto report directly to the Canadian parliament and the Ontario legislature.
I would suggest that the senior political bodies are quite different than their municipal offspring. Partisan politics prevail at the senior levels so it’s not likely that the opposition parties will allow any critical audit reported to Stephen Harper and Dalton McGuinty to be swept under the rug.
At Windsor City Council, I don’t see anything resembling an Official Opposition.
I have argued that there should be a buffer between the new Auditor General, Todd Langlois, and City Council. So far the mayor has hinted that there may be an audit advisory committee to Council some time in the future, but that would appear to be mere lip service.
I have done a little research on the auditor general models in Ottawa and Toronto, and discovered that the AGs at the senior levels do not report to the Premier and Prime Minister and their cabinets – the equivalent of the mayor and Council at the municipal level.
The Federal and Provincial AGs are independent of government and administration. They table their audits with the speakers of the house, who are elected by all parties. The department or ministry being audited have an opportunity to respond to the audit criticisms and recommendations, but have no power to alter them.
The way matters are lining up in Windsor, the AG will report directly to the mayor and Council, who act as both the executive and legislative arms of our municipal government. Who knows what checks and balances will be in place to guard against interference before the documents become public?
What is most surprising about all of this is the lack of interest from the mainstream media. The news and opinion hounds were all over the mishandling of the 400 Audit a couple of years ago, but seem to have little interest in more blatant bobbing and weaving around accountability over the WFCU audit.
Where are you when the taxpayers need you Don McArthur?
Angela is off work and has filed a violence in the workplace complaint against City Council and the lame duck audit committee which includes Zalev. It seems clear that Zalev, who was previously deemed by Council as ineligible to serve on the audit committee because he is employed by a city agency (EnWin), is hanging around to deliver the WFCU audit.
Here’s another question. How could KPMG’s work begin before Council’s formal approval? Mere formalities don’t seem to count for much around City Hall these days.
It appears we are about to learn what AGO experts meant, ironically including Windsor Audit Committee Vice-Chair Bill Carter, when they advised Council that accounting firms will cost a lot more and work a lot less than in-house staff conducting the business of the AGO.
The Council majority has gone ahead with the outsourcing anyway, and now it is likely that taxpayers will be paying KPMG more than $40,000 a month for the arena audit. When the audit is complete, supposedly in three weeks, it will be interesting indeed who gets to vet this potentially explosive document before it goes public.
In an interesting debate on April 18th, Mayor Francis and most of Council spoke in favour of direct reporting to Council, suggesting that the auditor generals in Ottawa and Toronto report directly to the Canadian parliament and the Ontario legislature.
I would suggest that the senior political bodies are quite different than their municipal offspring. Partisan politics prevail at the senior levels so it’s not likely that the opposition parties will allow any critical audit reported to Stephen Harper and Dalton McGuinty to be swept under the rug.
At Windsor City Council, I don’t see anything resembling an Official Opposition.
I have argued that there should be a buffer between the new Auditor General, Todd Langlois, and City Council. So far the mayor has hinted that there may be an audit advisory committee to Council some time in the future, but that would appear to be mere lip service.
I have done a little research on the auditor general models in Ottawa and Toronto, and discovered that the AGs at the senior levels do not report to the Premier and Prime Minister and their cabinets – the equivalent of the mayor and Council at the municipal level.
The Federal and Provincial AGs are independent of government and administration. They table their audits with the speakers of the house, who are elected by all parties. The department or ministry being audited have an opportunity to respond to the audit criticisms and recommendations, but have no power to alter them.
The way matters are lining up in Windsor, the AG will report directly to the mayor and Council, who act as both the executive and legislative arms of our municipal government. Who knows what checks and balances will be in place to guard against interference before the documents become public?
What is most surprising about all of this is the lack of interest from the mainstream media. The news and opinion hounds were all over the mishandling of the 400 Audit a couple of years ago, but seem to have little interest in more blatant bobbing and weaving around accountability over the WFCU audit.
Where are you when the taxpayers need you Don McArthur?
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