Council gets first crack at contracts report

A Calgary alderman is troubled that city council is discussing a report on untendered contracts which may address fraud claims before the public can see it.

The city manager's 30-page report will be given to council at a closed-door meeting on Monday evening, and then publicly released, said Mayor Dave Bronconnier.

Ald. Ric McIver said he's disturbed that the discussion is not going to be held in public first.

"I don't like that it's happening in-camera. I don't know and that's an explanation that the city manager's going to have to give," McIver told reporters on Monday.

"The mayor did indicate the report would be released publicly today; that makes me feel a little bit better but I'd feel a lot better if all the discussions were public because at this point, the public deserves to know and I want them to know."

'The 10,000-plus, hard-working employees of the City of Calgary have somewhat been slammed by this report and I think we need to get to the bottom of it.' Ald. Joe Connelly

Calgary's auditor, Tracy McTaggart, said last month that she found systemic problems in the way the city awarded multimillion-dollar contracts for projects and suppliers between 2006 to 2009.

More than half of the contracts awarded in that time period went to companies without any competition, her report revealed. McTaggart said a city official broke rules when Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava was simply handed the design contract for the city's controversial Peace Bridge.

McTaggart said she also found huge cost overruns on contracts that were awarded to the lowest bidders. She said lack of controls resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in additional work going out without proper approvals or proof it was necessary.

Prospect of fraud

The auditor also raised the prospect of fraud by city employees, although no specific evidence has been made public.

"The 10,000-plus, hard-working employees of the City of Calgary have somewhat been slammed by this report and I think we need to get to the bottom of it," said Ald. Joe Connelly.

"What I have seen in the report is that it's been very, very sloppy and this just would not be tolerated in the business community and it shouldn't be tolerated with taxpayers' dollars."

Added Ald. John Mar: "I think the police would be involved in the event that there is absolute, irrefutable proof that a allegation of fraud can be confirmed."

Both Connolly and McIver, who are running for the mayor's seat in October, say they oppose bringing in an outside auditor unless it's clear the situation is out of control.