A hotline to handle citizen complaints and allegations of city hall corruption, political wrongdoing and bureaucratic bungling will continue under Windsor’s new internal audit charter.
The hotline will now be administered by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, hired earlier this year as the city’s first outsourced internal auditor.
But the auditing firm’s biggest initial task will be grinding through the numbers of the billion-dollar corporation’s operations to, as PWC director Christopher O’Connor told council Monday night, verify whether city hall and the political leaders are actually carrying out and doing what they’ve promised to residents and taxpayers.
There will be quarterly reports to council, said PWC’s Jacqueline Peterson, and, after approval Monday night of a proposed internal audit charter, the first annual plan will be before council in the fall. City council previously approved a $300,000 annual expenditure to perform the audit function.
“Have you ever seen a plan like this before?” Mayor Eddie Francis asked his chief critic on the auditing file.
“It’s certainly comprehensive,” replied Ward 4 Coun. Alan Halberstadt. “Thank you,” said Francis.
Halberstadt said he wants to see what PWC is able to dig up.
The internal audit function has the responsibility of advising senior management on key risks and appropriate responses, as well as propose changes to reduce risk levels to the corporation and taxpayers. Independent of political input, the auditors will “pick and choose where the biggest potential is” in identifying areas of risk and then proposing how to tighten financial controls to reduce that risk.
CAO Helga Reidel said it’s “not meant to be an airing of dirty laundry in public.” But the PWC representatives Monday night said that whatever the audits uncover will become public.
dschmidt@windsorstar.com or on Twitter @schmidtcity
Find Windsor Star on Facebook
