Napanee hires auditor to investigate recent town purchasing

Napanee, Ont., is undergoing a costly external audit of all the goods and services it has purchased, rented or leased since 2021.

The town is paying advisory firm KPMG $100,000 to review the use of its procurement bylaw after concerns were raised about multiple “deviations” from the bylaw.

“It’s a check station to ensure that we are spending the community’s money accurately, fairly and just to keep an eye on it,” says Terry Richardson, mayor of Greater Napanee.

Neither Richardson nor the town’s interim treasurer Nicole Davidson, who brought the notice of the audit to council last week, would comment on the specific allegations of misuse of the bylaw.

Each municipality must have a procurement bylaw outlining how the town approaches purchasing fairly, objectively and with transparency.

“It could be anything from the acquisition of equipment to construction work that’s been done to buying things that are needed for the day-to-day operations of the corporation,” Richardson said.

Napanee updated its procurement bylaw in 2021 and staff were given training on the changes in January 2022.

But since then, the town’s overall approach to procurement has been called into question and will be part of the review.

As the treasurer told council at a July 11 meeting, a number of concerns were raised about whether the bylaw was consistently being followed.

Findings from the audit are expected in the fall.