Audit takes a look at City of Vernon's purchasing activities

by Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star posted Aug 31, 2015 at 11:00 AM
B.C.’s auditor general for local government has released an audit on the City of Vernon’s purchase of goods and services from 2010 to 2012. The audit states that while the city has worked to improve the procurement process, eight of 25 transactions tested showed non-compliance with city policies. Among them were inappropriate expense approvals. Mayor Akbal Mund says the audit covers previous administrations and the city has taken action to improve its procurement procedures. However, while he is pleased with how purchases are handled, Mund says recommendations in the AGLG audit will be considered. "We will look at it and there's always room for improvement. There's nothing wrong with an outside auditor taking a look at what you do," he said.
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City bending rules : Audit
by Jennifer Zielinski |CASTANET - Aug 31, 2015 / 1:29 pm
A performance audit report on the City of Vernon has been completed by B.C.'s auditor general for local government. In summary, it appears that in 2011 a city department direct-awarded a $35,000 purchase order to a vendor to provide services without involving the purchasing services department in the transaction, contrary to the city’s purchasing policy. The report states the city’s files contained no written contract, but only a purchase order, which also contradicts city policy. There was also a lack of compliance in the procurement of legal services, according to the report. The city procured legal services contrary to the requirements of both its legal services policy and its professional services policy. Acting Auditor General for Local Government Arn van Iersel, who lead the report, indicated the city breached its purchasing-card policy limit on the size of individual transactions. The report's executive summary says van Iersel believes there is a need to strengthen procurement policies and improve compliance in order to minimize risk to the organization. The city needs to strengthen its gathering of information on operational procurement, monitoring and reporting of meaningful results to senior management, van Iersel said. "In our view, if the City of Vernon adopts the recommendations in this report and continues to look for ways to increase value for money, it will generate lasting benefits for taxpayers." The City of Vernon is one of six local governments the province set out to audit on the topic "Achieving Value for Money in Operational Procurement" during 2013-14.
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Don Quixote Note. This audit is for the period 2010 to 2012. The City's reaction to the recommendations in the audit are at the end of the report.

The audit can be found here:  http://www.aglg.ca/includes/docs/Audit_Topic_1_Report_2_City_of_Vernon.pdf
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City of Vernon receives AGLG Performance Audit Posted August 31, 2015
The City of Vernon was pleased to receive the Auditor General for Local Government’s (AGLG) Performance Audit Report that noted the City’s commitment to managing procurement transactions, related risks and obtaining value for Vernon residents and taxpayers. The audit found that the City was committed to managing procurement transactions and related risks and obtaining value for taxpayers. Further, the report noted that the City worked to achieve continuous improvement in its procurement, seeking to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of this function.

Mayor Akbal Mund has committed to addressing the recommendations contained with the audit, noting that many of the recommendations have already been implemented by the City since the audit period was concluded in 2012.

“The City of Vernon has pursued continual improvement of our purchasing environment,” said Mayor Mund. “The City has moved to a centralized purchasing environment, and implemented electronic purchase orders and document scanning of paid invoices—all in a move toward improving efficiency. Further, our Council has full stewardship of the budget and consistently monitors results of the Corporation of the City of Vernon. We are committed to financial and operational best practices so that we can continue to provide value to our residents and business owners in Vernon.”

Following Premier Christy Clark’s announcement to form the office of the AGLG at the 2012 UBCM convention, then-Mayor Rob Sawatzky stepped forward to volunteer the City of Vernon as one of the first B.C. municipalities to receive the performance audit. At that convention, Premier Clark announced the purpose of the AGLG was to find and share best practices among B.C. municipalities. Mayor Sawatzky was confident that constructive recommendations from the AGLG report combined with recommendations from the Core Service Review completed by KPMG in 2013 would allow the City to deliver improved value-for-money services to Vernon’s taxpayers as well as provide best practices that would benefit other B.C. municipalities.

“The City looks forward to reviewing AGLG-recommended best practices for local governments in B.C. to consider,” said Mayor Mund.