Childcare problems, IT weaknesses, poor asphalt uncovered by auditor general
Posted Dec 1, 2017 07:13:27 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA — Mismanagement of the city’s childcare subsidies has cost the City of Ottawa more than $1.5 million per year, and resulted in families who qualified for a subsidy not receiving one.
The city’s auditor general found that city management didn’t follow up to see whether families who were on the childcare subsidy waitlist were still eligible for a subsidy. As a result, some families who were eligible for a child care subsidy did not receive one.
Meantime, roads contractors have been using inferior asphalt to patch potholes and the city hasn’t been checking the quality, the auditor general found in his latest report.
Two samples of asphalt used to repair potholes outside of the winter season were tested by auditors. Both samples failed.
“I can tell you, I get calls every day about the condition of the roads in Ottawa (and) the number of potholes,” said Councillor Allan Hubley, audit committee chair.
This year’s auditor general report also found glaring problems with the city’s IT security system that left the network exposed.
The audit team used malware containing a benign, non-functional virus to test the city’s IT security. One test was successfully detected, reported and blocked, but multiple other similar tests were not detected.
The auditor general made seven recommendations to remedy the IT issues.
Lansdowne deal scrutinized
The city’s auditor general found lax enforcement of the deal with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group to revamp Lansdowne. Of 43 commitments made by OSEG to the city — that the auditor general looked at — OSEG failed to meet 22 of them.
In some cases, neither the city nor its partners were aware of their obligations under the deal.
The auditor general found that monitoring insurance of the city’s partners wasn’t being done. While it doesn’t necessarily mean insurance had lapsed, the city hasn’t been asking for proof that it’s up-to-date.
Dedicated bank accounts for repairs to Lansdowne — also part of the deal between OSEG and the city — hadn’t been set up. OSEG had the cash, but sitting in general funds with the balance not accruing interest.
The auditor general also uncovered that the city was paying for the utilities of Lansdowne’s private tenants. City management found the issue and is in the process of fixing the problem, and recovering the money for water usage. Excess funds paid for natural gas have already been recovered.
While Child Care Services, Lansdowne and Road Services took a beating in this year’s report, the LRT project and Emergency Preparedness received overall positive marks.
