St. Albert city council has given first reading to a bylaw that would allow for a program auditor reporting directly to council.
Council approved allocating $325,000 to fund a resource to independently review the city’s services and programs as part of the 2016 budget. The intention is for an auditor to be able to provide insights on how the city can improve or make more efficient programs and services.
This position would be separate from the external auditor, which every municipality is required to contract to do an annual audit under the provisions of the Municipal Government Act.
Interim city manager Chris Jardine explained administration was asking for council to just give first reading to the bylaw that would establish the program auditor position and a committee to oversee it. Councillors will provide feedback to administration by Nov. 10, and the bylaw will come back before council in January.
He said the program auditor would likely oversee administrative policies but would not necessarily review the governance direction set by council – the auditor would in no way be in a governance role.
“I think the program review would be more on how you do it rather than on whether you do it,” he said.
Jardine also said the auditor would have the power to bring in outside experts on specific areas, and the committee would have to work to clearly identify which areas it wanted the auditor to examine.
“One of the challenges I would anticipate you having is setting some scope as to what is going to be reviewed within the confines of the dollars that are available,” he said. “You can’t just have it wide open.”
The motion to give the bylaw first reading was approved 5-1, with Mayor Nolan Crouse casting the only dissenting vote, questioning whether additional oversight is the best practice.
He explained his opposition is based in his experiences working in the manufacturing industry, and his understanding of W. Edwards Deming’s 14 Points for the Transformation of Management, a philosophy that’s often applied in the business world.
The third point, specifically, states the need to “cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality,” by building quality into the product in the first place.
Coun. Cam MacKay noted he’s also aware of Deming’s principles, and doesn’t see how having an auditor is necessarily incongruent with those principles.
He explained he’s supportive of the position because not everyone in government is or can be an expert in every single area, and some bring with them their own biases.
“This is a good way to level that playing field, to have someone with a critical eye,” he said.
Previous discussions around the council table made reference to an “internal auditor,” but the name has changed to be “program auditor” to better reflect the auditor’s role as set out in the Municipal Government Act.
The bylaw and committee would be set up much the same as the City of Edmonton’s internal auditor program, with the exception that the committee would not also be responsible for reviewing the annual external audit. That role would remain with council.
