Greater Sudbury Mayor Brian Bigger spoke publicly about the Sudbury Transit scandal for what he called “the final time” on May 10.
Bigger took 10 minutes before Tuesday's council meeting to update citizens on the investigation into a transit ticket scandal that left the city with a shortfall of more than $500,000.
Last September, the city hired and paid $50,000 to Investigative Solutions Network (ISN) to determine if any Greater Sudbury employee was negligent in the managing of a transit kiosk and to determine if any city employee or council member may have committed a conflict of interest.
“I want to take this opportunity to share what we can and put this issue to bed,” said Bigger.
“The report (from ISN) concluded that there was no evidence of criminal conduct on the part of our management and staff, but that there was evidence of a loss of control, accountability, training, and leadership. The events that led to the loss of funds in 2009 were referred to as a 'system-wide failure' and ISN supported that conclusion.”
Greater Sudbury CAO Kevin Fowke said, “the city's procurement practices have been significantly enhanced since the time of the transit kiosk contract, with a focus on strengthening controls and accountability.”
The city's purchasing by-law is one of the new policies and covers things like strengthened controls around contracts, clarifies roles/responsibilities for contractors and management, and has a new policy around changes to contracts, renewals, and extensions.
“I want to make it clear that there is no evidence to support criminal recourse for the city, and the timeline on civil action expired some years ago,” said Bigger.
“With the arrival of Ed Archer, our new CAO, on May 30, we have an opportunity to review the governance and accountability structure of Transit, this will be one of Mr. Archer's first tasks.”
ISN's redacted report will be made available to the public, which includes a summary of the findings of the investigation.
“I am confident that this investigation has achieved what it was intended to,” said Bigger, “and that we can move forward with new systems, new procedures, and a new understanding in place for an era of openness and transparency.”