Sudbury staff's relationship with auditor 'deeply wounded'

A new study says the City of Greater Sudbury's auditing process is deeply flawed and confrontational.

But after two hours of debate at Tuesday night's city council meeting, the future of the city's auditor general remained unclear.

Consultant James Key said Sudbury city hall is an inhospitable environment for an auditor. Auditors always have uneasy relationships with the people they investigate, he noted, but it can stay professional.

"I won't say that we're all singing kumbaya, but we know what the issues are, and we agree what we've got to do to resolve the issues," Key said. "That takes the drama out of internal auditing."

The current situation "is not healthy" and "if not broken, it is deeply wounded." But the situation can be repaired, he said.

"Management's process, audit's process, council's oversight process I think they all need attention."

Raked over the coals

There has been a lot of drama around Sudbury's auditor general. His few years on the beat have been marked by private battles with city staff and public ones with city councillors over his struggles to obtain information from city staff.

Coun. Dave Kilgour says the hidden cost to that is a less productive city workforce, with "staff being apprehensive, staff being non-trusting, staff being worried about what report is going to come out, what am I going to get raked over the coals for?"

The consultant's report didn't prescribe a specific solution, but auditor general Brian Bigger is looking forward to the next step, including "expanding in that conversation in open council meetings or open audit committee meetings and moving forward with his recommendations."

In the past, some councillors mused about cutting the auditor and his $375,000budget and hiring contractors instead.

Key didn't weigh in on whether the city should have its own auditor general or hire contractors, but he did make several recommendations, including having accounting experts sit with councillors on the city's audit committee.