‘Questionable management’ responsible for high cost
Montreal’s inspector general singled out the Mordecai Richler gazebo on Mount Royal, whose final price spiralled to $720,000, more than twice its original estimate, as a glaring example of a lack of rigour shown by the city of Montreal in the use of public funds in 2016.
In his year-end report to city council Monday, Denis Gallant also noted that the roof of the gazebo was destroyed without consulting Quebec’s Ministry of Culture and Communications beforehand, in contravention of the regulations, which could compromise the province’s share of funding. In addition, the report reveals, the city had to open bids for plans and specifications in January to reconstruct the gazebo’s roof and finish the work, which the city had quietly announced as completed in September.
“For the inspector general, it stands as an example that shows the consequences of a lack of rigour in the management of public funds,” the report reads.
As the manager of public funds that come from citizens tax payments, it is the city’s duty to ensure “that public funds are not wasted unnecessarily.”
The restoration of the gazebo was managed by the city’s department of large parks, with several other players involved, including various city of Montreal departments and Quebec’s culture ministry.
“The explosion of costs was mainly due to the questionable management of the project by the department of large parks,” the report reads.
The project stretched over five years, multiplying the delays and the time taken to make decisions, due largely to numerous changes in personnel managing the project and in the chain of command at the large parks department.
The personnel changes and a lack of knowledge of the specialties involved in heritage projects on the part of the parks department meant the provincial culture department was contacted too late, forcing the city to modify the plans it had already made.
The architecture firm hired by the city to produce the restoration plans did not check for the presence of lead in the paint.
When it was discovered after the city’s contractor demanded a check, the city accepted their contractors’ bid of $85,000 to remove it, without checking for market prices. The decontamination brought to light the advanced state of deterioration of the roof, which had been inspected by the architecture firm two years before.
Based on the new inspection, the parks department decided to go through with the removal of the lead paint and demolish the roof, without consulting with Quebec’s culture ministry, the inspector general notes in his report.