While the city manager found no evidence of fraud and was able to account for nearly a billion dollars in city spending, council has voted to bring in an external auditor.
Owen Tobert said that the more than $700 million in purchase orders, which the city auditor claimed was unaccounted for, was merely documented electronically rather than on paper.
“I find it absolutely shocking that an auditor would go and miss the extensive work that has gone through in electronic files,” said Mayor Dave Bronconnier. “Most every outlet today uses electronics, including the City of Calgary.”
Tobert said the auditors overlooked the electronic files and that they had never asked to see them.
“We don’t prevent them from accessing anything they want to see. This is their audit, not our work,” he said.
His report, which was compiled by city administration in the last two weeks, was able to account for all but $4.8 million. This is the reason for bringing in the city’s external auditor, Deloitte, said Tobert.
“Just don’t take my word for it, let’s bring another expert in and conclude what is happening or what is not happening,” he said.
Ald. Ric McIver was one of only two aldermen to vote against accepting the report, but said he believed having a third-party review was a good idea.
“There’s four to five million dollars worth of questions that still need to be answered,” he said.
While most of the money has been accounted for, Bronconnier said: “I think it’s truly unfortunate that it has taken this long to catch up with the facts.”
Tobert said the city administration has already begun to implement the 13 recommendations in the city auditor’s report to improve their procurement processes.
