City's response to the Auditor General report on office furniture procurement

Today, the City of Vancouver’s Auditor General, Mike Macdonell, released a performance audit report on office furniture procurement PDF file (631 KB). In response, Armin Amrolia, Deputy City Manager and Acting General Manager of Real Estate and Facilities Management, and Patrice Impey, the City’s Chief Financial Officer and General Manager of Finance, Risk, and Supply Chain Management, released the following statement: 

“We thank the City of Vancouver’s Office of the Auditor General (OAG) for his report and conducting an objective and comprehensive review in accordance with professional auditing standards. The independent qualified auditors and subject matter experts involved followed a very structured and professional approach to collect, analyze and summarize large amounts of information to gather evidence necessary to assess performance against best practice criteria and make conclusions and recommendations with the purpose of focusing on opportunities for improvement.

Additionally, we appreciate the report has taken the opportunity to highlight positive findings as well as performance improvements to contribute the objectives of public service that is ethical and effective and a civic administration that is accountable to taxpayers and its elected officials.

Many of the comments and recommendations contained within the report will inform senior management to update policies with recent regulatory requirements, create procurement strategies, change templates and standard operating procedures and continue to build upon existing processes in preparation for the next procurement of office furniture and other future purchases.

We would also like to take this opportunity to recognize that staff from the departments involved acknowledge the value of this auditing process, the findings of the report and are supportive of the recommendations put forward, accepting that it will require resources and organizational capacity to prioritize the implementation over competing priorities.

We look forward to working with the Auditor General to implement the City’s response and next steps as outlined.”

About the Office of the Auditor General

The Office of the Auditor General was established by Vancouver City Council on November 4, 2020, with the mandate of assisting Council in holding itself and City administrators accountable for the quality of stewardship over public funds, and for achievement of value for money in City operations. The performance audit report on building permit fees is the first to be released and can be found on the Auditor General's webpage.