Mission Accomplished: Outsourcing The Auditor General

It only took a year, but it seems the council majority was successful in their initial quest – to outsource and ultimately control the Office of the Auditor General - in the latest development in Windsor’s Auditor General saga.

“If one is a micro-manager needing to control every function of the administration of the city, having an Auditor General, who by legislative authority would have unfettered access to all city records and the power to subpoena, would send shivers down their spine.  

Enwin, the Tunnel Commission, and the Airport Corporation could all be subject to an audit at the call of the Auditor General.  No wonder Councillor Valentinis is curious about outsourcing the audit committee – Fortress Enwin must remain secure.

Better throw up road-blocks so that prospective candidates walk away saying “no thanks” and drag out the process further.

Then, dismantle the existing audit committee and farm it [Office of the Auditor General] out to an outside firm that can only act upon council request, [according to the City of London] rather than the broad authority of the Municipal Act under an Auditor General.”

That is what I wrote nearly a year ago to the day  - February 8, 2011 – after another delay in the hiring of the auditor general.

And as predicted  it appears EnWin Utilities was the nail in the coffin for Todd Langlois according to the Windsor Star’s Doug Schmidt’s blog:

Among the juiciest allegations — that the mayor’s office and the CEO at Enwin Utilities resisted attempts by Todd Langlois to have the company’s books audited by the man hired as Windsor’s independent municipal financial watchdog (Doug Schmidt, Windsor Star, February 2, 2012).

First Mike Dunbar, then Angela Berry and now Todd Langlois.   A sheer coincidence of course they were all auditors.  Geesh, I was only kidding when I asked, Who’s Afraid of the Auditor General.

This all seems to have started when the Auditor General wanted to present his 2011 work plan, policies and procedures to council - that have been continuously deferred since October 24 (See blog The Office of Continual Deferral).   

It is important to note – these documents were approved by the Audit Advisory Committee made up of Max Zalev, President and CEO of Enwin Utilities and Bill Carter.

These documents were last heard about November 21, 2011, when in response to Councillor Halberstadt’s question administration stated, “Those items are listed for tomorrow’s agenda review, we hope to have an answer for council shortly thereafter.” 

Now it has been alleged the auditor general was terminated because he would not agree to “outsource the staff” as required by council resolution  and because “of complaints from senior city staff” (Beatrice Fantoni, Windsor Star, February 2, 2012).

There are two interesting points in the continually deferred Auditor General’s work plan and charter, the first being a reference to staffing:

 Maintain and/or oversee professional audit staff/resources with sufficient knowledge, skills, experience, and professional certifications to meet the requirements of this Charter.

If there was disagreement with outsourcing audit staff, it certainly wasn’t reflected in the Charter the Audit Committee approved and the Auditor General drafted – and importantly the Executive Committee of Council deferred discussion of not once, but twice.

What gives – it’s pretty clear the Auditor General was preparing for either in-house audit staff (maintain/staff) or outsourced staff (oversee/resources).

The second point has to do with audit powers and an indirect reference to Enwin Utilities – again something  the Audit Advisory Committee approved:

The audit universe shall include all entities, agencies, boards, commissions, grant recipients, and trust funds that are accountable to City Council and/or are owned and/or controlled by the City of Windsor in addition to the offices of the Mayor and members of City Council and any other entity/organization where the city has obtained a “right to audit” clause.

Presumably, since that circus of a city council meeting August 27, 2007, it seems the city has a “right to audit” EnWin Utilities (among other shareholder rights) - so how could there be any resistance to conducting an audit of the utility as described by Schmidt?

 The other troubling issue in all of this is the council resolution authorizing the outsourcing of the audit staff.

If that is the case, why hasn’t it been done?  What company was selected?  When did the RFP go out?  Was it sole-sourced? 

And when did this resolution happen?  The only public discussion about possible outsourcing was when council approved the Mayor’s motion February 28, 2011:

I. The City of Windsor establish the internal position of the Auditor General which will report directly to council; and

II. That the Mayor, the Chair and the Vice-Chair of the current audit committee and the CAO will come back to council with a plan regarding how to resource that office as soon as possible.

When was this ”plan regarding how to resource that office as soon as possible” presented to council and when was there a public debate?

In the end, it doesn’t really matter anyway. 

The council majority seems to have accomplished what they set out to initially – contract out the entire Auditor General function and control what is audited by limiting the budget of the private firm.

Related posts:

1. Council Recomits To In-House Auditor General
2. Auditor General Debate Laughable
3. Barring The Auditor General
4. Who’s Afraid Of The Auditor General?
5. Auditor General On Hold Pending Review