Vancouver to create independent auditor general office

The federal government has an independent auditor's general office, as does the provincial government.

And soon, B.C.'s largest city may have one too.

Vancouver council voted on Wednesday to create an officethat would directly report to council, with a targeted starting date sometime in the 2020/2021 fiscal year.

"Itensures accountability for public funds, and the objective in establishing this office is to further enhance council's ability to be accountable ... and provide excellent service to all Vancouverites," said councillor Colleen Hardwick, who put forward the motion.

Most other large citiesinCanada already have independent auditor general offices, which periodically issuereports on different aspects of city spending and identify things that could be improved.

Hardwick said the fact the proposed auditor general's officeisindependent from staff could help council improve accountability and provide efficiency in a way the city's internal audit team and the annual external financial audit could not.

"This is something that has been done [elsewhere]. For Vancouver to adopt this is not going to be reinventing the wheel," he said.

A budget has not been set for the office, but Hardwick originally suggested it could be set at $1millionper year, and that money could be recouped from the savings identified by the office in the future years.

Accountability measures across Metro

Amendments were passed by councillor Pete Fry to ensure the new office wouldn't overlap with ongoing work by the city's internal audit division but he also wanted to make sure the motion didn't impugn work already done by staff.

"I just wanted to be perfectly clear in how this presents [around] inspiring public confidence and faith among taxpayers, implying that we don't have that already," he said.

After an hour of debate, the motion passed unanimously.

Councillor Lisa Dominatosaid the proposedoffice is not a slight against current city staff.

"We have excellent staff and public servants and that can't be understated," she said. "So I want to just reiterate that this is about just another layer of accountability that fits in with the work that our staff are already doing.

"If we can find efficiencies and find some savings that we can then allocate to other priorities I think that's amazing."

Since last election, the City of Vancouver has moved to createa lobbyist registry and strengthenconflict of interest rules, while the City of Surrey is establishing an ethics commission and Richmond is joining most other Metro Vancouver municipalities in making senior staff file annual financial disclosures.