Toronto has more work to do to improve winter maintenance program: auditor

Toronto's auditor general says that the city has not made as much progress as it claimed when it comes to updating its winter maintenance program to comply with more than two dozen recommendations that were made two years ago.

Two lengthy reports from the auditor totaling 187 pages are set to go before council this month at the same time as a variance report showing the city overspent on winter maintenance to the tune of $26.4 million last year because of several significant snow events.

One of the reports has to do with procurement practices while the other reviews the progress made on implementing 26 recommendations from a pair of previous reports, one in October 2020 and the other in June 2021.

Among other things, those reports two years ago found that the city could have saved tens of millions of dollarsin snow clearing costs over the previous few years if it had properly enforced its arrangements with contractors, and had done more to ensure that work was being completed as billed.

FEWER THAN HALF OF RECOMMENDATIONS IMPLEMENTED SO FAR

City staff said in May that 18 of the 26 recommendations stemming from those reports had been fully implemented.

However the auditor found that only 10 of the recommendations had in fact been implemented. One no longer applies, and management is still working to implement 15 of the recommendations, according to the audit.

So far the city has followed through on a number of the key recommendations, such as creating a plan to modernize the system and to integrate technology solutions with its GPS system; developing clear guidelines and allowances for acceptable stop and break times; and providing additional training to ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities and have strong knowledge of the winter maintenance contracts and policies.

However many of the recommendations remain outstanding. They include a key recommendation that the city fully utilize the GPS technology available to better monitor contractor performance and that it improves how it documents and tracks vehicle breakdowns and the deployment of spare vehicles.

Management said that some of the delays relate to equipment shortages brought about by the pandemic and that while some of the goals have not yet been fully implemented, the city expects that they will be in time for the 2023-2024 winter season.

A manual was created to help staff understand the contracts and how to properly implement them and a purpose-built GPS dashboard was piloted in February.

“However, management advised that, due to resource and staffing challenges, administrative setbacks and technology gaps, there were significant delays in implementing the Enterprise Work Management System (EWMS), installing GPS devices, and configuring the GPS dashboard to support efficient contract management and monitoring of performance metrics,” the auditor’s report states.

The auditors also found that “there were issues with the consistency, completeness, and accuracy of these records, which limited the scope of what we could review.”

For example, some field audits of snow clearing were missing key information, such as report numbers and distance assessed.

The review found that the effective and efficient use of GPS data and enhanced use of other technology to monitor performance “is key to better managing the new winter contracts and holding contractors accountable to the contract terms” but the technology has yet to be fully implemented.

It also found that the city paid almost $18 million for daily rate payments from Oct. 15, 2022 through March 31, 2023, for equipment where some of the express terms of the contract were not fully met.

PROCUREMENT PROCESS SHOULD BE MORE CLEAR

The auditor also looked into nearly $1.5 billion worth of winter maintenance contracts awarded by council in December 2021.

Two companies and their joint venture won 88 per cent of the total 10-year contract value, leading five other suppliers to file disputes.

The auditor found that while the rules were followed, the city would do better to handle complex, large-scale procurement by testing out significant changes to the process on a smaller scale first and not handling overlapping procurements at the same time.

The city should also takes steps to improve communication and to clarify its process in order to bolster procedural fairness going forward, the auditor found.

Overall the report made 16 recommendations on how to improve the procurement process.

City council is set to consider the reports on July 19.