The city auditor has released a scathing review of Edmonton’s multi-million dollar Winter Street Sand Recycling and Mixing Program.
“I am furious with the findings of the auditor,” Mayor Don Iveson said.
The city auditor conducted a review after a city employee came forward earlier this year with concerns about the program, which began in 2005.
One of the objectives of the program was to save the city $2.5 million per year for each of the six years of the original contract. In 2012, city administration reported the savings had been realized so the contract was extended for another six years.
However, the recent audit was not able to find any evidence to prove the savings were actually achieved.
“I am furious that, as a governor, I was given information that’s not actually accurate or provable,” Iveson said.
“Management responsible was reporting things to council that were frankly not true and that’s infuriating. Absolutely infuriating. If those people still worked here they would stop working here right away.”
While the audit found the city received a good quality product, “the city overpaid for this product.”
“I think for as much as it might have cost us more, we might have saved even more,” City Manager Linda Cochrane said.
“That’s the sad part about this. Because the paper trail on this was so very loose, we can’t give you, with any certainty, the savings or the lack of savings on this and that’s very embarrassing.”
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In the past 12 years, the city has spent $74 million to recycle sand under the Winter Street Sand Recycling and Mixing Program.
Every year, the City of Edmonton dumps about 152,000 tonnes of sand on city roads and sidewalks. About 106,000 tonnes of sand is recovered each spring. On average, the city has been able to recycle about 79 per cent of the street sweepings into clean, reusable sand. The program costs about $7 million per year.
“The sad part about this project is, from an innovation standpoint, it was a very good idea,” Cochrane said. “The notion of recycling sand and diverting sand from the landfill, which was filling up at the time in 2005, was both creative and intelligent kind of thinking.”
But the recent audit found the program “has not been effective in meeting its objectives.” It also found the program was not properly managed and monitored, and that no one in city administration was following up on the program, to see if the objectives were being met or needed to be changed.
“This has exposed the city to significant risks and has limited management’s ability to ensure that the current program is the best option for the City of Edmonton,” the auditor’s report reads.
Cochrane said the city failed on contract management and she takes responsibility for that. She said she has accepted all of the auditor’s recommendations to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
“I do want to say, without trying to make it sound like an excuse, is that I think with the rigour and processes that we have in place now, if this was just starting like it was in 2005, the likelihood of it proceeding the way it did would have been mitigated,” she said. “But it did happen, and it happened over a long period of time and we’re very concerned about that.
“It doesn’t seem like that long ago but it was a different place here in terms of how departments worked and how integrated they were and the corporate oversight from corporate services. But in the end, this is the responsibility of the city manager.”
The audit also found the recycling and mixing operations taking place at the city’s Horse Hill processing site do not have all the required permits in place.
“We found that City Administration did not review permit requirements adequately prior to commencing sand recycling and mixing at Horse Hill,” the audit reads.
“The city’s reputation is at risk as it is not ensuring that permits are obtained and regulations are complied with.”
The city auditor made the following four recommendations to ensure the city receives value for its money from the Winter Street Sand Recycling and Mixing Program, which Cochrane said have already been acted upon.
1. Update the goals, strategies and targets of the program, determine and document the best way to achieve these, and review these decisions on a periodic basis.
2. Develop, document and implement a performance management system.
3. Consult with Corporate Procurement and Supply Services Branch and the Law Branch on all contracts related to the Winter Street Recycling and Mixing Program to ensure the City’s interests are protected.
4. Ensure adequate program management procedures are in place.
The contract expires at the end of this year. At this point it’s not known if the contract will be renewed.
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