The sad part of this is that there are
many easy ways to prevent most of the corruption at municipalities in
Ontario and elsewhere.
Everyone is aware of the circus of
corruption being uncovered in Quebec municipalities and the billions
of dollars that have disappeared into corrupt pockets. Quebec
municipalities and the Quebec government are the least transparent
government bodies in all of North America when it comes to revealing
the cost of doing business and who is doing the business.
If there is corruption at Ottawa City
Hall, it is from lack of transparency
in “ general purchasing” and the awarding of city contracts.
What goes for protecting “privacy”
issues regarding contracts is basically a cover-up for
potential misuse of public funds.
And the non-disclosure of contract
detail due to “privacy” issues doesn't hold any water as there
are a few municipalities in Ontario that provide their taxpayers with
much more information than does the City of Ottawa, but the
publishing of more information is an absolute necessity.
The Mayor, Councillors and Senior
Management do not own the information regarding the operations at the
city. The taxpayers own it. So you should get this through your
collective heads. I get-it and you should get-it!
This is my
creed:
“Anyone
doing business with the City of Ottawa or any other Canadian municipality is required to know that the
nature of the business and the financial details of the contract or
purchase contract will be made public.” The detailed information
will appear on an easy-to-access sub-file on the City website.
If those doing business with the City
don't like this, they can do there business elsewhere.
If the taxpayers of Ottawa were to see
the level of detailed disclosures of municipalities in the United
States they would be flabbergasted. Publications on the U.S.
Municipal websites of this information regarding purchasing and
specific contracts is “the way it should be.” In the U.S. it is a
fact of life for contractors and others doing business with
municipalities to have the information disclosed. There are no
complaints that I can find in publications of municipal minutes.
The City of
Toronto does a very good job disclosing on its website
information about bids and contracts awarded. The same disclosure is
completely missing from the City of Ottawa site. You would think that
the 2011 highest paid municipal employee in all of Ontario (Kent
Kirkpatrick) would see to it that the City of Ottawa disclosure on
bids and contracts awarded was the best in all of Ontario. Don't hold
your breath.
I also understand that the Ottawa news
media (City Hall Reporters) are getting fed up with the road blocks
mounted against release of even basically standard City of Ottawa
information. One can only assume that Corruption Exists at the City
and the withholding of pertinent information is the “Proof.”
My recent inquiry to the Human Resource
Manager regarding the number of city employees was responded to, but
the information requested was not provided. The biggest joke at the
City of Ottawa is: HOW MANY CITY EMPLOYEES WORK FOR THE CITY. You may
receive an answer of 19,000 or on another day 16, 200 or in the
Financial Information Report 14,420 or so.
It is not a joke any longer.
The city must disclose monthly the
number of full time employes and the related cost and the same for
part time any seasonal. In the same report, a breakdown of total
authorized position, positions utilized and positions unfilled. Then
we will know the number of recipients included in the 1.4 Billion
dollar payroll expense.
As for the purchasing and contract
information disclosure, I will await response from this article
before I publish what seems to be the norm in other jurisdictions.
Comments to wmomalley@gmail.com
Have a good day,
Bill O'Malley
