Halifax needs to improve how it manages contracts, finds auditor general

A newly released report from Halifax’s auditor general scolds the city for a lack of consistent evaluations on contracts awarded to outside companies.

Evangeline Colman-Sadd noted in her report that all four business units her office audited suffer from problems the city needs to improve on.

Of the 16 contracts that had built-in monitoring requirements, staff failed to follow up on a majority of them once contractors had completed their work.

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According to Colman-Sadd, the evaluations that are supposed to be completed after a contract is finished were not done on a consistent basis.

For instance, the Transportation and Public Works unit was supposed to complete four evaluations for snow and ice removal contracts.

The auditor general found that only one had been completed.

Colman-Sadd also noted that the city had routinely hired IT consultants at an average cost of $800 per day when the municipality could have “considerable savings” if they hired in-house staff.

The auditor general issued five recommendations that she believes will help the city efficiently manage outside contracts.

1. The operations support unit should review contract terms to ensure there is enough staff to properly monitor the contract’s status,
2. Units should monitor to confirm both the municipality and the contractor comply with all contract terms,
3. Units should evaluate a contractor’s performance at the end of a contract and, if needed, during the contract,
4. The procurement division should establish a process to ensure that vendor evaluations are completed and used when awarding future contracts as needed,
5. All external contracts should require a payment penalty clause.

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According to responses from the HRM’s management, all recommendations have been accepted and there are plans to implement them.