Bigger open to staying on past 2015

Armed with a new, two-year contract, Auditor General Brian Bigger says he's happy he'll be around at least until December 2015, and is open to staying on even longer.

“Just as councillors continue to learn as councillors, auditors also continue to learn about the organization,” said Bigger, who will have spent six years in his post when he new deal expires. “So I don't see a hard or fixed limit on the term of an auditor general. It's something that council will decide.”

Although city council decided last month to extend his contract, the decision wasn't finalized until Tuesday morning, when council approved the new deal at a closed-door meeting. Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann formally announced the decision during the city council meeting later in the day.

Mayor Marianne Matichuk said she was pleased.

“As you all know, I've been totally supportive of the auditor general since the beginning,” she told reporters. “We need an auditor general and it's good to see that council is supporting him. Because that's the key.”

The next step in the process, she said, was to make the office permanent, something she proposed earlier this year. The proposal led to an outside auditor coming in and assessing the local office and making recommendations on how to proceed long-term.

James C. Key, a highly regarded auditor with the Shenandoah Group, concluded that keeping a full-time internal audit department is far cheaper than contracting the work out.

“You’re a very complex city, you perform a lot of activities,” Key said in his May report to city council. “Certainly, there’s enough work in a city this size.”

However, Key also concluded the audit process in Sudbury was “flawed.” Rather than being a confrontational event, audits should become a collegial process, he said, where city managers and the auditor general work together to minimize risks to the city and find more efficient ways of operating.

For that to happen, a “maturing” of the audit process should take place, where everyone knows and is comfortable with the process. Key encouraged the city to learn what models other municipalities use and what could work here.

He also called for a major shakeup of the audit committee, which currently consists of all city councillors. A leaner committee of no more than five people would be more effective, he said, and it should include one or two outside experts with a background in accounting.
He also suggested training for members of the committee so they can provide more effective oversight of the process.

“Whichever form you take, the oversight needs to be smaller rather than larger,” he said.

On Tuesday, Bigger said he looks forward to implementing Keys' recommendations.

“Obviously I'm pleased with the renewal of my contract and it gives me an opportunity to start working on the recommendations that were made in the Shenandoah report, based on whatever direction that council decides to give me,” he said. “I'm really looking forward to continuing on and moving forward.”

Matichuk said she's going to push forward with efforts to make the auditor's office permanent as soon as possible.

“Now we need to look at the resolution that I brought forward to begin with, and that is to make the office permanent,” she said. “The office itself should be a permanent part of the city, instead of being tied to contracts and stuff.”

While his new deal is a separate issue from the long-term future of the auditor's office, Bigger said he's seeing increasing acceptance of the work he's doing.

“I think council has said clearly in the past that they support the auditor general's office.”

While his uncertain status and turnover in staff in his office has slowed the audit process in 2013, Bigger said his review of city advertising contracts is ready.

“The reports have been completed, and were waiting for the next audit committee meeting in August,” he said.