FOCUS ON CITY HALL - August 6, 2014 Newsletter A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF THE CONSOLIDATED WORKS DEPOT PART ELEVEN When George Rust-Deye presented his report on AG-13-09 to City Council on September 3, 2013 he openly admitted that he did not review everything presented to him and did not interview some of the employees who were no longer with the City. Here are his comments in that regard: As I recently pointed out to the Auditor General, I have not reviewed every document contained in the 27 boxes of material together with a substantial number of three-ring binders, which have been provided to me by the various municipal officials and departments involved, nor will I be able to interview every individual whose actions or alleged conduct may be relevant to the broad scope of the statements, allegations and fact situations referred to or contained in Auditor Generals Report AG-13-09. The Auditor General has already advised me that he believes my investigation is significantly incomplete by reason of that fact. Another paragraph of interest is the following: In his report AG-13-09, the Auditor General alleged that the City Manager approved confidential Reports CM-12-32 and CM-13-29 when he knew they excluded important facts and contained both inaccurate and materially misleading information. He has amended this to change that allegation to read when he knew OR OUGHT TO HAVE KNOWN that the reports in question excluded important facts and contained both inaccurate and materially misleading information. Ron Foster, on August 9, 2013, issued an amendment to Report AG-13-09 stating: While there is reasonable audit evidence to demonstrate that the City Manager knew that Confidential Reports CM-12-32 and CM-13-29 were misleading, the possibility remains that he did not know these reports were misleading and that the errors and omissions within these reports arose for a number of other reasons. Regardless, he remains accountable for ensuring that reports to Council are reasonably complete and free from significant errors. For the above reasons, I told Mr. Rust-Deye on August 7, 2013 that I wished to amend recommendation 4 on Page 1 of Report AG-13-09, to state That the City Manager be asked to explain to the Mayor and Council why he approved Confidential Reports CM-12-32 and CM-13-29 when he knew OR OUGHT TO HAVE KNOWN they excluded important facts and contained both inaccurate and materially misleading information. I also wish to make a similar amendment to the recommendation at the end of section 5.0 on Page 9 of Report AG-13-09. The comments above and requested amendments should not be construed as a significant abandonment of the findings and conclusions contained in AG-13-09. They are provided to clarify the audit process; to identify other findings and conclusions not stated withing the report; and to assist with resolution of the concerns identified. The above information was part of George Rust-Deyes final report on the investigation into AG-13-09 which was dealt with by Council at their September 3, 2013 meeting. The result, as everyone knows, was that the Auditor Generals contract was not renewed and the position itself was eliminated. His attempt to bring to light certain information regarding the acquisition of 199 Wentworth Street East was disregarded by the majority of members of Oshawa City Council. More to follow in Part Twelve
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 14:19:37 +0000
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