Forensic audit into missing transit money never completed, Sudbury mayor says

Sudbury's mayor says the city may never fully understand how hundreds of thousands of dollars in transit ticket money was lost.

A private company hired by the city to sell bus tickets between 1999 and 2009 didn't turn over the city's share of the proceeds, totaling about $800,000.

Provincial police investigators say there were bad business practices on both sides, but no evidence of criminal activity. About $500,000 is still owed to the city.

Mayor Brian Bigger had promised during the election campaign to publicly release a forensic audit done on the transit ticket scandal, but at a press conference on Tuesday, he said apparently that audit, started in 2011, was never completed.

In his previous job as auditor general for the city, Bigger did report that staff didn't keep tabs on the contractor who wasn't giving its share of bus ticket sales.

Bigger said he was hoping forensic auditors with access to city personnel files would get a fuller picture.

"Provide a detailed analysis of who was responsible for the loss of the fund," he said.

"Basically, explaining how and why everything happened from an independent perspective."

As for the forensic audit not being completed, Bigger said he's "unsure at this time why this was not accurately disclosed to the public."

The city is developing a code of conduct for all employees over the summer, which Bigger said he believed would have helped prevent the transit ticket scandal.