The Audit Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council receive for information, the report (May 29, 2009) from the Auditor General. 

In considering a report dated April 23, 2009 entitled “A Policy Framework for Toronto’s Accountability Officers”, Council requested that 'the Accountability Officers' inform Council of the requirements, contents and timing of their annual report”.  This report is the Auditor General’s response to the request from City Council.

The annual reporting to City Council by the Auditor General consists of a number of different reports.  This report outlines each of the annual reporting processes to City Council by the Auditor General.

The Audit Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council request the Chief Information Officer to re-evaluate the agreement with the vendor who is currently providing information technology asset disposal services.  Such re-evaluation take into account the experience of the vendor particularly in the area of data security and environmental concerns and where appropriate ensure that the vendor is capable of providing the level of service required.

2.         City Council request the Chief Information Officer to review all provisions in the agreement with the third party information technology asset disposal vendor and direct the vendor to comply with all provisions in the agreement.  Further policies, procedures be established to ensure that the City is able to confirm compliance.  Regular audits including the development of audit programmes be conducted to confirm compliance.  Documentary evidence of all such compliance audits be retained and approved by supervisory staff.

3.         City Council request the Chief Information Officer, on a random basis, to confirm that hard drives submitted to the auctioneer have been successfully erased.  Specialized data recovery tools be used to determine whether or not hard drives have been successfully deleted.

4.           City Council request the Chief Information Officer to ensure that disposal processes for surplus information technology assets are in conformance with regulatory procedures and all such disposals are supported by an adequate audit trail for subsequent verification by City staff.

5.         City Council request the Chief Information Officer to ensure that receipts from the sale of equipment are reconciled to the actual equipment sold.

The objective of this review was to determine whether the City’s management and oversight of the disposal of surplus Information Technology (IT) equipment adequately addresses potential risks such as:

-           ensuring information residing on computer equipment such as hard drives is  effectively erased or destroyed

-           ensuring that surplus equipment is disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner, and

-           ensuring the City receives its share of the funds from the disposal of the assets.

The review identified the need to address a number of important areas relating to contract compliance.  The City needs to address these issues in order to mitigate the risks pertaining to the inappropriate disposal of surplus IT assets.  There is also a need to ensure that the qualifications of the current third party vendor are re-evaluated.

Although recommendations in this report focus on improving controls over the disposal of surplus IT equipment at the City the recommendations may be relevant to the City’s Agencies, Boards, Commissions and Corporations and should be reviewed, evaluated and implemented as deemed appropriate.

The Audit Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council request the Treasurer to report annually to Government Management Committee a summary of all sole source purchases including divisional purchase orders, as well as sole source purchases reported to the Standing Committees and Council.

2.         City Council request the Treasurer to require that staff in the Purchasing and Materials Management Division report significant inappropriate sole source activity to senior divisional staff in order to address performance and training issues of divisional staff.

3.         City Council request the Treasurer to require that the reasons for all sole source purchases, including those purchases approved in Standing Committee and Council reports, are recorded in the financial information system on a consistent basis.

4.         City Council request the Treasurer to ensure policies and procedures to control and monitor the new $50,000 limit on divisional purchase orders are finalized and issued to divisional staff as soon as possible.  Such procedures should address the justification and documentation requirements for sole source purchases.

5.         City Council request the Treasurer to ensure that sole source procedures clearly state that solicitation of informal bids is not permitted.  Similarly, for non emergency situations, vendors should not start work before purchase orders are approved and wherever possible, the first phase of multi-phased projects should undergo a competitive procurement process.

6.         City Council request the Treasurer to re-emphasize to divisional management the importance of identifying procurement requirements and ensure that this information is communicated to the Purchasing and Materials Management Division and City Legal on a timely basis.  This process would allow for sufficient lead time, such that both the Purchasing and Materials Management Division and City Legal can schedule their respective resources to meet divisional timelines.

7.         City Council request the Treasurer to develop and communicate guidelines to assist divisional staff in identifying contractual relationships where the potential exists that the contractor could be deemed an employee by the Canada Revenue Agency.

8.         City Council request the City Manager to direct City divisions to report back to the Treasurer on any consulting/contractor arrangements that may pose a significant risk of being deemed City employees by the Canada Revenue Agency.

The Audit Committee requested:

1.         the Treasurer to report to the Audit Committee:

a.         within three months, with a list of all sole source contracts which were awarded for amounts up to $500,000.00 during the period from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2008, such list to include the names of awardees, dates, amounts and reasons for the sole source awards; and

b.         annually thereafter, on amounts awarded through sole source contracts.

The Audit Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, to develop a comprehensive master service and infrastructure plan, incorporating the Division’s “Our Common Grounds” strategy and all related studies being developed or planned pertaining to parks and recreation facilities, and report to the  Community Development and Recreation Committee by June 30, 2010.  Such master plan to include, but not limited to:

a.         specific action plans, timelines and responsibility for implementation;

b.         estimated costs and potential funding sources or partnership opportunities to be explored; and

c.          reporting on the status of the master implementation plan as part of the annual capital budget submission.

2.         City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, to take appropriate steps to:

a.         develop criteria for determining when a City facility is considered to be no longer cost-effective to maintain, taking into consideration such factors as utilization, ongoing operating and capital maintenance costs, location, and proximity to other facilities, community impact and changing demographics;

b.         where practical, incorporate the criteria developed into the capital asset management system;

c.         compile a comprehensive inventory of all facilities that are no longer cost-effective to maintain based on criteria developed in (a.);

d.         identify opportunities for consolidation of operations within existing facilities or potential new ones and recommend facility closures, if warranted;

e.         determine the full financial implications of either maintaining, enhancing or closing facilities, including any potential program changes resulting from each option;

f.          where a facility closure is recommended, develop alternate accommodation for viable affected programs; and

g.         conduct appropriate community consultations of any planned actions.

3.         City Council request the City Manager to give priority to the development and implementation of a City-wide prioritization framework for capital repairs, as previously recommended in an Auditor General’s report entitled “Maintenance and Administrative Controls Review – Facilities and Real Estate” dated September 2005.  Further, the priority framework be enhanced by including all new capital projects.

4.         City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation to report to Budget Committee, as recommended by Council, by November 2009, on the outcome of the Capital Budget Task Force.  Such report to include:

a.         issues identified and factors contributing to project delays;

b.           recommendations to address issues identified and minimize delays; and

c.         status, timelines and responsibility of implementation of each of the recommendations being made.

5.         City Council request the City Manager to review the funding allocation between state of good repair projects and service improvement or growth-related projects, both at the division and city-wide levels, and take appropriate steps to develop a sustainable long-term strategy to reduce the current and projected state of good repair backlog.

6.         City Council request the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer to require all major projects for new infrastructure include future capital maintenance costs for reporting under financial implications at the time of project approval.

7.         City Council request the City Manager, in consultation with the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation and the Director, Toronto Office of Partnerships, to develop, for approval by Council, a comprehensive City-wide policy on naming rights and other private funding arrangements, such policy to:

a.         consider all existing policies related to:

i.          Parks and Recreation Naming and Renaming Policy

ii.         Donations policy

iii.        Advertising

iv.        Unsolicited bids

v.         Sponsorships and partnerships

b.         include guidelines on:

i.          eligibility criteria for facilities to be considered for naming rights

ii.          responsibility and control processes for securing and accepting naming rights or other private funding arrangements

iii.         the creation of endowment, or similar funds, to offset future maintenance and repair costs for new facilities put in place under this policy.

8.         City Council request the Director, Toronto Office of Partnerships, in consultation with appropriate divisional staff, to identify all potential projects and facilities that may benefit from naming rights or other private funding arrangements and, with the approval of Council, pursue such funding according to corporate guidelines.

9.         City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, to give priority to completing the development and implementation of the work order system for Parks, Forestry and Recreation Division to provide the tracking of both operating and capital costs of each facility.

10.       City Council request the City Clerk, in consultation with the City Solicitor, to clarify Council procedures with respect to recommendations at Community Councils on matters that are contrary to Council policy, and consider requiring that such recommendations state explicitly that a Council policy is being contravened.

The Audit Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council request the City Manager to direct senior management to review documentation supporting the implementation status of all audit recommendations prior to the submission of information to the Auditor General’s Office.

2.         City Council not authorize the public release of Confidential Attachment 1.

The Audit Committee recommends that:

1.            City Council receive for information, the report (June 1, 2009) from the Auditor General.

As part of the Auditor General’s 2008 Annual Work Plan, an assessment of the adequacy and effectiveness of controls and processes in place over revenue, expenditures and procurement practices pertaining to pay and display parking operations of the Toronto Parking Authority was undertaken.

Attached is the Auditor General’s report entitled “Toronto Parking Authority Pay and Display Operations – Review of Revenue, Expenditure and Procurement Practices” and Management’s response to the recommendations therein.

The purpose of this report is to forward these documents to the Audit Committee for information.

The Audit Committee recommends that:

1.         City Council receive for information, the 28 responses regarding access, equity and human rights policies and procedures, received from the City’s agencies, boards and commissions and attached to the report (June 8, 2009) from the City Clerk.

The Audit Committee:

1.         forwarded a copy of the responses received from the agencies, boards and commissions, to the City Manager for evaluation as to whether they comply with the City’s human rights policy and procedures; and

2.         requested the City Manager to contact those agencies, boards and commissions which have not submitted a response and ensure that they have appropriate human rights policies in place.

The Audit Committee received for information, the 2008 Financial Statements and related documents of the following corporations:

-           Toronto Community Housing Corporation

-           Toronto Hydro Corporation.