THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF THE VILLE DE MONTRÉAL TABLES HER SEVENTH AND FINAL ANNUAL REPORT
MONTRÉAL, May 16, 2023 /CNW/ - The Auditor General of the Ville de Montréal (the City), Ms. Michèle Galipeau, tabled her report for the year ended December 31, 2022, with city council yesterday. This report presents the results of 9 financial audit reports, 7 performance and compliance audits, 1 physical intrusion test and 4 accountability reports, including the follow-up of 336 recommendations. This is Ms. Galipeau's seventh and final annual report as her 7-year term comes to an end on August 15.
Despite the various measures put in place by the City and the Auditor General, she remains concerned about the delays in implementing recommendations. Thus, in 2022, nearly one in two recommendations was implemented at least one year later than the date the business unit had set for itself. "Moreover, over the past 7 years, nearly 61% of the 1,159 recommendations we made have been implemented late compared with the timelines provided," points out Ms. Galipeau. "The implementation of the recommendations is all the more important seeing as 79% of the performance audits carried out over the past 7 years concern topics related to one of the City's 20 priorities set out in its Montréal 2030 strategic plan."
Recognizing that it needs to invest in its aging infrastructure, the City is preparing a ten-year capital works plan to ensure strategic and integrated planning. The plan totals over $19.5 billion, of which 70.3% will be spent on protecting assets. The City has several policies and guidelines in place for the development of the capital works plan. However, certain practices aimed at aligning long-term financial needs and resources to match the City's strategic vision are not being implemented. Not all existing investment planning and funding strategies have been followed, and there is insufficient accountability to assess the extent to which the ten-year capital works plan is aligned with the City's needs and consistent with its long-term financial capacity and budget projections.
The City operates 2 wastewater treatment plants, including the largest in North America, and 161 overflow structures through which wastewater overflows in the event the collection system overloads. The City usually has implemented a series of mechanisms to ensure sound management of wastewater discharge and overflow monitoring. On the other hand, these mechanisms are not fully compliant with regulatory requirements.
The City's heritage is governed by municipal provisions as well as the Cultural Heritage Act (CHA) to raise awareness of it and ensure as its protection, enhancement and transmission. In addition, new provisions added to the CHA in 2021 require the City to adopt an inventory of heritage buildings that date back to 1940 or earlier by 2026. In the 2005 Heritage Policy (Policy) and its 2017?2022 Heritage Action Plan (HAP), the municipal administration committed to act in an exemplary fashion towards its heritage. Despite these frameworks, the City does not have full knowledge of these buildings on its territory or of their preservation status. The buildings are not all identified or described in a consistent manner, thereby limiting the scope of the enhancement interventions, which are already deficient. In addition, several actions of the Policy and the HAP have yet to be carried out.
The City's central departments make significant financial contributions to non-profit organizations (NPOs) each year. Although there is a set of frameworks in place, the City is not able to provide a documented demonstration of impartiality when it comes to awarding financial contributions to NPOs and complying with the frameworks for all of the contributions reviewed. In addition, we saw no evidence that the City is able to demonstrate that all monies paid are being used in full and for the intended purposes.
Patrol officers of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) intervene when emergency calls are made to the 911 Emergency Centre. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that the City makes effective and efficient use of the SPVM patrol vehicles in response to calls and while travelling on the road network. For obvious security reasons we cannot disclose the details of the results or our findings in this annual report. We made recommendations to the various business units concerned in relation to these findings and they have committed to developing and implementing action plans to correct the deficiencies found.
The metro service of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is centrally controlled by a data control and acquisition system that monitors and manages metro operations. Industrial control systems (ICSs) are used to ensure this management. The STM needs to improve management of its ICSs to reduce the risk of unavailability of the metro system, particularly in the areas of logical access management and computer backup systems. Some of the findings in this report are not publicly disclosed for security reasons. We have made recommendations to the STM in relation to these findings. The STM has committed to developing and implementing action plans to address these deficiencies.
The Centre de communication en sécurité incendie (CCSI) of the Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal (SIM) has been using a computerized call-dispatch system named Artemis. As the SIM is the only body of its kind in the entire agglomeration of Montréal, it is crucial that the CCSI be able to rely on a high-performance system ensuring a high level of availability. Although certain elements require improvements, the City generally has several control mechanisms in place to ensure sound management of the Artemis system.
For 2022, the Auditor General issued unqualified auditor's reports jointly with the external auditor for the consolidated financial statements of the Société de transport de Montréal (2 reports), the Société d'habitation et de développement de Montréal, the Société du parc Jean-Drapeau, the Agence de mobilité durable and Transgesco. At the time of producing the annual report, the City's financial statements had not yet been filed with city council.
To read the report, visit our website.
SOURCE Ville de Montréal - Bureau du vérificateur général
News published on and distributed by:
