City official hired partners, audit finds

A second stinging audit of Edmonton’s failed eServices effort released Thursday found the manager of the $11.6-million project hired business partners to do the work.

Auditor David Wiun said he found the contractors hired had personal relationships with the project manager and received payments above the city ’s normal rate.

Half the money was paid to a small number of contractors, and the city ’s human resources department was in the dark about these personal relationships because they were hired through a complex secondary hiring contract, Wiun said.

The eServices project was supposed to move many city services online — such as pet licence application forms and development permit applications. But after five years, even the few online services offered were not working well.

In 2015, when an external consulting company was hired to find out what was going wrong, it found no meeting minutes or any written documentation of decisions had been kept. The contracts were cancelled and the director responsible left employment at the city.

Wiun started this audit last April after discovering allegations of conflicting interests during his audit of the current planning reserve fund built up from the fees industry and homeowners paid for permits. That audit found the eServices project had run 87 per cent over budget.

In all, $3.2 million was paid to five contractors over five years, while the contractors also took on work for other areas of the city.

The auditor had two recommendations: that the city provide fraud awareness presentations for employees, and strengthen project management processes under the I.T. contract.

Despite the continued bad news, accountability is increasing at the city, he wrote.

“Within the past few years, senior organizational leaders ... have contacted the city auditor regarding a number of issues and investigations that, in prior years, may have been addressed internally.”