CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT

Transcription

1 CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT Subject: COUNCIL MOTION CRB EXPENSE CLAIM AUDIT On October 14, 2014 Councillor Hughes provided notice in accordance with Section 23 of Procedure Bylaw 35/2009 that she intended to bring forward the following motion: In order for Council to debate the motion, the motion must be formally moved. (Councillor Hughes) That an independent auditor is obtained to perform a forensic audit of Mayor 's expense claims to the City of St. Albert and the invoices submitted to the Capital Region Board through Developments Inc. from 2012 to 2014 to determine the extent and exact amount of duplicate billing, over billing, or other improper billing that has occurred for expenses and/ or per diems to either organization, with the audit to be paid from the stabilization reserve. Attachments: 1. Administrative Backgrounder Originating Department(s): Author(s): City Manager Signature: Legislative Services H. Fredeen, Legislative Officer Date: City Council Agenda October 27, 2014 / Page 1 File No.: 175-6

2 Administrative Backgrounder CRB Expense Claim Audit ATTACHMENT 1 On October 14, 2014 Councillor Hughes provided notice in accordance with Section 23 of Procedure Bylaw 35/2009 that she intended to bring forward the following motion: In order for Council to debate the motion, the motion must be formally moved. (Councillor Hughes) That an independent auditor is obtained to perform a forensic audit of Mayor 's expense claims to the City of St. Albert and the invoices submitted to the Capital Region Board through Developments Inc. from 2012 to 2014 to determine the extent and exact amount of duplicate billing, over billing, or other improper billing that has occurred for expenses and/ or per diems to either organization, with the audit to be paid from the stabilization reserve. BACKGROUND: The City of St. Albert procurement practices would require that an independent Auditor would be sourced through a competitive request for proposal process. Council direction is required on who will secure the Auditor; the City Manager, Chair of the Standing Committee on Finance or an Ad Hoc Committee of Council are possibilities. A forensic audit is a more rigorous process than a regular audit, requiring detailed verification of accounts. For example, a per diem claim for attendance at an Association meeting would need to have confirmation in writing that the individual attended the meeting for the time and duration as submitted. A regular audit would be more typically used in the context of this motion where expense claims to the City are cross referenced to expense claims to the Capital Region Board. Council direction is also required on the timeframe for completion of the audit and report back to Council. Councillor Hughes subsequently requested cost estimates for a regular audit for 1 or 7 individuals. An order of magnitude for one individual for would be $5-$15,000 and for one individual for plus six individuals for October 2013 to September 2014 would be $10-$30,000. Cost estimates would need to be confirmed through a competitive bid process. A forensic level audit would be substantially more expensive and Administration would need to research these costs further. Page 1

3 Attachments: ATTACHMENT 1 Appendix A Information provided by the Mayor Report Date Committee/Department General Manager Review City Manager s Office Patrick Draper Page 2

4 APPENDIX A October 21, 2014 For Agenda Report for October 27 Council I take strong exception to the inference of intentional wrongdoing. Terms such as double-dipping are plain wrong and inappropriate. I acknowledge there was a missing/lost expense account ($1,322), wrong dates, $1,200 paid to the City incorrectly, previous corrections causing confusion, calendar interpretations, errors of wrong mileage and duplications. BUT, a handful of duplications, while are my errors, I take exception to any suggestion of wrongdoing and request that such accusations cease and 2013 financial discrepancy is immaterial and warrants no further review in my opinion should be and will be corrected with an October 31 expense report submission. Summary: Attachment # 1 (owed to Mayor) $65.29 Suggest no action 2014 (Attachment # 2) (owed to Mayor) $1, Suggest correct as of October 31, 2014) October 2014 (Attachment# 3) (through October 17/14) $ Yet to be submitted Respectfully submitted Nolan File Mayor-403

5 TWUrTxn APPENDIX A f\tww ( CRB-City- Expense Variances October 21,2014 update File CRB-115 Date of Issue 2012 txpense Matter CRB By ByCRB City By By City 1 Jan-16 CRB Committee Error in claim 2 Feb-03 Leduc km 5.15 Overstated km 3 Feb-17 AUMA Error in claim 4 Feb-23 IBM Symposium Forgot to claim 5 Mar-17 Sheard event 3.03 Understated km 6 Mar-21 UDI/Airport Overstated km 7 Apr-11 Strathcona/CRB 4.04 Understated km 8 May 2/4 ACDS Conference Understated km 9 May-16 Imagine Conference Forgot to claim 10 Jun-04 FCM Error in claim 11 Jun-20 Minister meeting Forgot to claim 12 Jun-29 Transit Meeting Meeting Cancelled 13 Jul-28 Legal Overstated km 14 Aug-01 New Sarepta Understated km 15 Aug-01 New Sarepta Claimed twice 16 Aug-03 CEO Recruit CRB Forgot to claim 17 Aug-18 Devon 3.03 Understated km 18 Aug 23/24 Midsized Cities Understated km 19 Aug-29 Devon 3.03 Understated km 20 Sep-11 CEO Recruit CRB Forgot to claim 21 Sep-19 CEO Recruit CRB Forgot to claim 22 Sep-25 Deputy Minister Forgot to claim 23 Sep-26 CHBA Meeting Cancelled 24 Oct-O1 CEO Recruit CRB Claimed twice 25 Oct-25 Festival Fundraiser 5.50 Forgot to claim 26 0ct-30 CRB Meeting Forgot to claim 27 Nov-16 Philanthropy event Overstated km 28 Nov-21 Lawyer meeting 3.03 Forgot to claim 29 Dec-05 ATCO reception Forgot to claim Jan-15 Beaumont State of Claimed twice 31 Jan-19 Hockey Banquet Forgot to claim 32 Feb-12 Spruce Grove SOC Understated km 33 Feb-13 Mandel meeting Claimed twice 34 Mar-05 Teachers Awards 5.15 Forgot to claim 35 Mar 8/9 Nanotech meetings Error in dates 36 Mar-11 Horner meeting Overstated km 37 Mar-12 Devon trip Claimed twice 38 Mar-22 Leduc trip Claimed twice 39 Apr-17 Sherwood Park trip 5.67 Understated km 40 Apr-19 CRP meeting Error in claim 41 Apr-19 SAIF fundraiser Forgot to claim 42 May-10 Villeneuve airport review 5.15 Forgot to claim 43 Jun-01 Leduc event Wrong date or double 44 June 1/22 Leduc event Wrong date or forgot 45 Jul-18 Watershed Understated km 46 Jul-20 Gibbons Parade Claimed twice 47 July 5/21 Morinville trips 7.21 Understated km 48 Jul-26 Leduc County Claimed twice 49 Aug-10 Bon Accord Claimed twice 50 Aug-15 Urban Dev. Institute Claimed twice 51 Aug-17 Friendship Force Forgot to claim 52 Oct-10 CRB Meeting Forgot to claim 53 Nov-13 CRB Meeting Error in claim 54 Nov Spreadsheet formula error $ Prev. discovered/corrected 55 Dec Spreadsheet formula error $ Prev. discovered/corrected Totals 2M $ $ Total Owed by Mayor $1, Total Mayor $1, im-u Difference owed to Mayor $65.29

6 "Zo /M: APPENDIX A 2014 CRB-City- Expense Variances as of September 30/14 October 21, 2014 update for expenses up to September 30, 2014 Date of Issue 2014 Expense Matter CRB By ByCRB City By By City FnecRB-117 Status 56 Jan-08 CRB Meeting Forgot to claim 57 Jan-14 Beaumont trip Claimed twice 58 Feb-10 Horner Meeting Combined trips 59 Mar-01 Parade bike pickup Forgot to claim 60 Apr-29 Traffic Safety Conf Forgot to claim 61 May Overpayment Redwater $ Prev. discovered/corrected 62 May-20 CRB Meetings Combined trips 63 May-26 Project Smile Forgot to claim 64 May-31 May Expenses $1, (already recieved and not included below) Misplaced/submitted/paid 65 Jun-05 Cancer Fundraiser Understated km 66 Feb-July Perdiems 1, Error in how to report 67 Jun-30 Transit Governance Forgot to claim 68 Jul-09 Redwater mtg transit Forgot to claim 69 Jul-16 CRB meeting Forgot to claim 70 Aug-26 Sturgeon County Forgot to claim 71 Sep-10 Laurel Awards Combined trips 72 Sep-18 U of A 4.12 Understated km 73 Aug-14 Fundraiser dinner Forgot to claim 74 Sep-22 Downtown meetings Forgot to claim 75 Sep-30 Red Deer Forgot to claim Totals $ $ $ $ 1, Total Owed by Mayor $ Total Mayor $1, Difference owed to IV ayor $1, As of September 30, 2014 for 2014 only Notes: Mileage for the CRB is $0,505 per km Mileage for the City is $0.515 per km CRB provides parking for me at their offices and as such City does not incur costs when I am downtown Edmonton

7 APPENDIX A >C4Q<W-2 (prttlefvcwvwa 3t CRB-City- Expenses through October 17 for 0ct/2014 Date of Issue 2014 Expense Matter CRB By By CRB City By By City City By CRB File CRB-116 Status 56 Oct-O1 Red Deer return trip mi eage To be submitted 57 Oct-O1 Red Deer food To be submitted 58 Oct-14 Land Use (B Manning) meal To be submitted 59 Oct-14 Land Use (B Manning) mileage To be submitted 60 Oct-O1 Red Deer Room To be submitted 61 0ct-03 Strathcona Ec Dev mileage To be submitted 62 0ct-03 Parking Strathcona 5.00 To be submitted 63 0ct-08 Camrose Sustainability mileage % City 50% CRB 64 0ct-02 Housing Symposium mileage 9.60 To be submitted 65 0ct-07 Edmonton Parkland mileage To be submitted 66 0ct-07 Davies Park event mileage To be submitted 67 0ct-09 CRB Board meeting per diem To be submitted 68 0ct-09 CRB Board meeting mileage To be submitted 69 Oct-16 CRB Transit meeting per diem To be submitted 70 Oct-17 Downtown meetings per diem % City 50% CRB Totals $ $ $ $ $ Total Owed by Mayor $0.00 Total Mayor $ Difference owed to Ma> or $ Oct ober/14 exp snses only th rough Oct 17/14 Notes: Mileage for the CRB is $0,505 per km Mileage for the City is $0,515 per km CRB provides parking for me at their offices and as such City does not incur costs when I am downtown Edmonton

8 APPENDIX A October 21, 2014 Looking Back I offer no excuses for 75 errors, omissions, duplications. I can only share a few observations about what I learned. 1. My attention to detail on personal expenses is poor 2. Recording of the proper dates is poor 3. I have 5 categories of miscellaneous expenses that occur simultaneously: a. Personal b. CRB c. Mayor d. Business interests e. Election 4. Doing each of these functions separately instead of concurrently resulted in many errors including some things being duplicated and some things being missed altogether. For all this I apologize. Respectfully submitted Nolan Mayor, City of St. Albert Board Chair File Mayor-302

9 APPENDIX A October 21, 2014 Going Forward is done and behind us, adjustments are immaterial and should not be done is done and behind us, adjustments are immaterial and should not be done is underway and all expense account matters will be resolved October 31/ EA and Mayor need to work closer together on the preparation of expense reports. 5. Expense Account procedures for all members of Council need to be reviewed as there are matters of per diems, allowances, mileage, timeliness and more matters that require review. 6. All members' expense Account spreadsheets need to be checked for formula and formatting errors - it appears some issues currently may exist with the most recent St. Albert expense reporting template. Need to get all using the same template. 7. It may be appropriate to have a "schedule" of mileage to be used by all members of staff and Council for most common distances to destinations in the Capital Region. 8. The Council Policy C-CC-03 and its related Administrative Procedures are ambiguous and needs to be improved. 9. Where a member of Council chooses to serve on a Provincial, National, or Regional body where an honorarium is provided, the policy is currently silent on this and requires a policy position. This would be for bodies such as FCM, AUMA, CRB, CUTA, Sturgeon Foundation, CRWWC and more. This means definitions of per diem and honorarium need to be spelled out. V " Respectfullv submitted Nolan Mayor, City of St. Albert Board Chair File Mayor-302