- Target:
- City of Vaughan Council Members
- Region:
- Canada
City of Vaughan's new city hall is $15.6 million dollars over budget. Residents were told of the cost overruns only weeks before staff and council were scheduled to move into the new city hall.
Who was asleep at the switch? Why all the secrecy, silence and lies?
Council is flip-flipping on doing a full forensic and/or investigative audit.
In order to get proper answers to a lot of the unanswered questions we need a proper audit performed so that we can avoid making the same mistakes with future capital projects.
The decision to proceed with an audit of the new civic centre construction and the $15.6 million over budget is the right one. The decision to involve any City staff, including senior staff, in overseeing the audit and directing the audit in any way, is wrong and would constitute what we believe is a serious conflict of interest.
If this audit is to have any credibility, in this particular instance the auditor must be seen as well as able to work and report at arm’s length. As residents we strongly suggest that for the benefit of all Vaughan residents that the audit be conducted in one of the following 2 fashions:
Option 1 - Forensic Audit (Our preference)
1. The audit be a forensic audit performed by an auditing firm with qualified forensic auditing capability with construction auditing experience. It is very important that the audit understand the workings of the construction industry.
2. That the auditor be external and independent and have open access to all information, including any electronic files and the authority to request files from contractors, sub-contractors, architect, engineers and all city staff involved in the project.
3. That the auditor report to a select working committee consisting of members of council.
4. That the auditor not be selected by staff.
Option 2 - Investigative Audit
1. The audit be a broad investigative audit that is non-static in nature, meaning that the audit approach can change at any time as required and is flexible in nature.
2. The audit be an investigative audit performed by an auditing firm that has qualified forensic auditing capability if required with construction auditing experience. It is very important that the audit understand the workings of the construction industry.
3. That the auditor be external and independent and have open access to all information, including any electronic files and the authority to request files from contractors, sub-contractors, architect, engineers and all city staff involved in the project.
4. That the auditor report to a select working committee consisting of members of council.
As a resident of the City of Vaughan I support the above-mentioned recommendations.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The City of Vaughan new City Hall Audit petition to City of Vaughan Council Members was written by Vaughan Resident and is in the category Politics at GoPetition.