Sudbury's new AG ready to hit the ground running

Today is the first day on the job for Greater Sudbury's new auditor general.

The city introduced Ron Foster at a ceremony Monday afternoon.

Foster was an internal auditor with KPMG for five years before becoming auditor general in Oshawa from 2006-2013, when that city closed the office following a controversial report by Foster about a land deal.

While he was AG, he became acquainted with Mayor Brian Bigger, who was Sudbury's auditor at the time. Ward 7 Coun. Mike Jakubo, who chaired the hiring committee, said Monday there was an exhaustive search before they settled on Foster.

"This group was committed to ensuring the successful candidate was going to be the most qualified, the most experienced and the overall best fit for the city of Greater Sudbury," Jakubo said. "After many hours of research, discussion and interviews, the hiring committee has no doubt that Mr. Foster was the best person for the job."

"Welcome to our city," Bigger told Foster at the newsconference. "The role is very important to the community, enhancing and promoting transparency, accountability and trust in municipal operations.

"The auditor general performs his duties in an independent manner and will continue to make his findings and reports available to the public."

Foster said his time at KPMG had him dealing with public institutions, experience that served him well for the AG role.

"That allowed me to establish a good foundation for my position as auditor general in Oshawa,” Foster said. "The position of internal auditor and auditor general are similar. They both require independence and objectivity. I feel I bring both those attributes to the City of Greater Sudbury."

While Bigger's time as AG was marked by conflict with senior managers, Foster said he's aiming to have constructive relationship with staff. While they likely won't always be happy to see him coming, he said his goal is to produce fair and balanced reports that are accurate.

"I don't expect them to stand up and cheer and say 'Hooray, they're coming here' when we announce which areas we're going to be auditing on an annual basis,” he said. “But we would hope it wouldn't cause panic or great concern for organizations … I like to provide balanced, fair reports that are easy to read. You'll like those if you're in the press.

"The reports should be informative and easy to read for the public to understand ... The public wants to know, how are they really doing? (The audits) should give you a fair assessment of that."

While he's still settling into the role, Foster said his audit plan will be developed to ensure it matches the goals set by city council.

"I have a tentative plan that I've been working on (but) I have to vet that with council and the mayor, frankly,” he said. “I want to ensure my plan is aligned with policy direction and priorities within the city.

"Will it have value for money? It had better. Which areas will I go to first? I have half a dozen in mind, I'm sure council's list will vary a little bit. But that sort of back and forth in terms of prioritization is to be expected, and I think, desirable. You don't want to be working by yourself in a corner."

Foster, who has a five-year contract, said he hopes to prove the value of his work and have his contract renewed for another term. But a decade is usually the lifespan for an AG, he said.

"After five years, I would expect that if I've done a good job in the eyes of council, and in the eyes of staff, and the media, and the public thinks I've also done a good job, then maybe I'm worth keeping around for another five years,” he said.

"Ten is the norm for most auditor general positions, municipally, provincially, as well as federally ... After 10 years, there's generally and expectation that a new broom sweeps clean."