The recommendations will have no financial impact beyond what has already been approved in the current year s budget.

Transcription

1 STAFF REPORT INFORMATION ONLY 20. Accountability Officer Reports Date: February 22, 2016 To: From: Toronto Public Library Board City Librarian SUMMARY In March 2015, the City Manager wrote to all City Agencies and Corporations requesting that the 2014 reports from the City's Accountability Officers be reviewed. A review of Library policies, procedures and operations against the recommendations and findings contained in these reports did not reveal any major issues with compliance or with the achievement of value-for-money outcome contained in the City s framework. Six of the reports are relevant to the Library and the recommendations in these reports are related to issues in Procurement, Information Technology (IT) and Human Resources: Human Resources already develops and distributes internal reports using the data required for monitoring staff expenses and absenteeism. In future, Human Resources will compile these reports together each year in March for internal staff use. IT is already in the process of investigating the process of converting some landlines to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) as recommended in one of the reports. Purchasing has reviewed the recommendations related to wireless and plans to implement most of the recommendations beginning in The Library s procurement policies are based on the City s and TPL will follow the City s anticipated recommendations on the Charbonneau Commission. Any amendments made to the City s policies as a result of the Charbonneau Commission s recommendations will be examined and Library policies will be adapted accordingly. FINANCIAL IMPACT The recommendations will have no financial impact beyond what has already been approved in the current year s budget. The Director, Finance and Treasure has reviewed this financial impact statement and is in agreement with it. Accountability Officer Reports 1

2 ISSUE BACKGROUND On March 18, 2015, the City Manager wrote to all City Agencies and Corporations requesting that the 2014 reports from the City's Accountability Officers be reviewed. The letter included a link to 31 reports in total from the Ombudsman, the Integrity Commissioner, Auditor General and the Lobbyist Registrar. COMMENTS The relevant accountability office report recommendations all came from the Auditor General and were reviewed in more detail by Information Technology (IT), Purchasing and Human Resources. Telecommunications The June 10, 2014 report from the Auditor General, Controls Over Telecommunication Expenses Need Improvement contains a series of recommendations for the oversight of the use and billing of wireless, as well as a recommendation to consider converting landline phones into Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phones. IT is already in the process of converting some landlines to VOIP as recommended and expects to begin implementing this initiative in the third quarter of Purchasing examined the other recommendations in relation to telecommunications and plans to implement the following recommendations: Recommendation a. to develop a process for reviewing contract compliance during the time the contract is awarded as well as during the contract period. b. to implement a process for ongoing review and monitoring of telecommunication costs, including costs incurred by management employees responsible for approving billing invoices. Costs incurred as a result of personal use should be reimbursed to the c. to review controls over access and use of group wireless devices. The inventory of group wireless devices should be reviewed and those not required should be cancelled. d. consider placing limitations and restrictions on long distance calls outside North America. In particular, long distance calling capability should be disabled on group devices. e. to implement a process for timely reporting of telecommunication expenses and related details to Status Controls for reviewing contract compliance are in place at the Group devices refers to shared wireless devices, which are not common at TPL. Recommendation will be reviewed and considered. Partly implemented. Details are provided by carriers. Staff Accountability Officer Reports 2

3 divisions. Wireless service providers should be directed to provide additional billing details to assist in review and analysis of voice and data use charges. f. to direct divisions to ensure wireless device users purchase appropriate wireless voice and data travel packages before travelling outside Canada. g. to direct management to ensure users understand wireless service plan usage limits. Appropriate changes to plans should be requested on a timely basis to avoid unnecessary costs. h. to review options for conference calling and evaluate whether cost savings could be achieved. i. to implement a process ensuring vendor invoices agree with amounts provided in vendor contracts before payments are approved. j. to perform a detailed review of prior period/year invoices for telecommunication service providers. Respective wireless vendors should be contacted regarding refund of any overpayments identified. k. to implement measures to ensure extra work order invoices are validated with price quotes where appropriate and accompanied by work completion reports before payment. l. to review the inventory of telecommunication devices to ensure that it reflects the current status of such devices. Inventories should be adjusted where appropriate and reviews should be performed on a periodic basis. m. to develop exception reporting criteria to assist in evaluating unnecessary telecommunication costs. Criteria identified should include devices and services with no activity, suspended phones beyond a specified period and phones no longer in use. Devices and services no longer required should be cancelled. are working on a process to report out to Directors for Staff are instructed to request a travel package if they travel outside of Canada. Not a significant cost issue at the Staff are working on automatic reminders for usage limits. This recommendation is being reviewed. Reviews are conducted every month. This recommendation is not applicable to the Purchasing is in the process of developing an implementation plan commencing in Monitoring and Reporting of Staff Expenses, Separation Payments and Absenteeism Auditor General reports recommended the use of: 1. continuous controls monitoring of: a. overtime b. standby pay Accountability Officer Reports 3

4 c. mileage expenses d. exceptional absenteeism. 2. Employee Absenteeism Performance Measures to benchmark statistics related absenteeism and to consider expanding the number of indicators. 3. track and report on the cost of separation payments for terminated employees. Human Resources already develops internal reports pursuant to the aforementioned recommendations. This type of reporting is generated and monitored by staff internally. The data for these reports are already being collected and reviewed through the Library s Human Resources Information System (HRIS). Each report is expected to be short in nature. Note that the Library rarely offers buy-outs to staff. As a result, separation payment reports will be rare. These reports from Human Resources will be combined and brought forward together under one cover report on an annual basis in March beginning in 2016 for internal review. Procurement Policies The report, The Charbonneau Commission An Opportunity for the City to Re-evaluate its Procurement Practices recommended a review of the Commission s report. The final report was released on November 25, 2015, but was in French only. The report contains 60 recommendations and is 1,751 pages in length. English summaries of the report s findings state that, in relation to public procurement, there are recommendations for greater flexibility for organizations in public procurement. According to the summaries, having fixed processes that are always applied in awarding contracts makes collusion within an industry easier. Other recommendations that dealt with the political system in Quebec and regulation of the construction industry are not relevant to the Staff will review the most relevant portions of the report later in 2016 as context when the Library s finance policies are being reviewed and will continue to monitor the City for further recommendations in response to the Charbonneau report. CONTACT Elizabeth Glass; Acting Director, Planning, Policy & E-Service Delivery; Tel: eglass@torontopubliclibrary.ca SIGNATURE Vickery Bowles City Librarian Accountability Officer Reports 4

5 ATTACHMENT Attachment 1: Accountability Officer Reports Relevance Accountability Officer Reports 5