The city is one step closer to hiring an internal auditor, but final approval was delayed after last-minute changes to the proposed bylaw.
Council gave second reading to the Internal Auditor and Internal Audit Committee Bylaw at the Jan. 23 meeting.
City solicitor Gene Klenke said he had incorporated councillors’ suggestions submitted after first reading of the bylaw, which at that point made reference to a “Program Auditor.”
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 organization can be more efficient.
This would be a separate position and different role from the external auditor, which every municipality is required to contract to do an annual audit under the provisions of the Municipal Government Act.
Other than the name change, amendments Klenke made to the bylaw for second reading include that the position may review proposed city services or functions, and not just existing ones; that the position reports directly to council and not the committee; that the committee only functions when an auditor has been or will be appointed; and that public members have been removed from the committee.
Council reversed that last change, voting in favour of Coun. Cathy Heron’s motion to add public members back on to the committee. She noted while one councillor may have made that suggestion, she thought public members would add value to the committee’s work.
“I think they will add a community and public perspective council may not be aware of, and I think they will add some transparency to this committee,” she said.
There were several suggestions Klenke said he did not include.
Deleting a section referring to a written agreement, for example, wouldn’t work, as a written agreement would be the contract under which the auditor would work. Likewise he did not change the bylaw to make the auditor position mandatory, rather leaving it up to council whether an auditor is required.
“I thought it better that it be left discretionary, that ‘may’ remain in the clause,” he said.
One change he recommended against was including the requirement that the auditor have a professional accounting designation, which he said might be an asset but probably shouldn’t be imperative.
“You might be dealing with things that have nothing to do with finance issues,” Klenke said.
Coun. Sheena Hughes successfully argued against this, and council approved her motion saying that the position to have an auditor designation, rather than requiring specifically the professional accounting designation.
“I want to make sure this person actually has the qualifications for it,” she said.
In hiring an external position like this, it’s not uncommon to hire a firm rather than a specific person. City manager Kevin Scoble said in his experience you would want a lead auditor with the ability to bring in additional expertise if it’s required.
Hughes said she felt it was important that if the contract went to a firm rather than an individual, that someone on the team should have the designation, and council agreed.
Mayor Nolan Crouse was the only council member to vote against the bylaw, saying he simply didn’t feel like it was an appropriate expense for what could be gained.
“I find it hard to believe we’re going to get a couple hundred thousands dollars a year in savings out of this.”
Coun. Cam MacKay, who made the motion to give second reading to the amended bylaw, said it would help make the city more efficient and more accountable to residents, and that the benefits may not just be financial.
“There certainly will be other benefits that the public receives from this, and an opportunity for us to look at a wide variety of areas,” he said.
The bylaw will come back at a date yet to be determined for third and final reading.
