KPMG Core Review Proposal Carries Initial Price Tag of Nearly $250 Grand
Thursday, March 22, 2012 @ 4:00 AM
Prince George, B.C. – The lone submission vying for the job to conduct the Core Review in Prince George, carries an initial price tag that is just shy of $250 thousand dollars.
KPMG made the only submission, and the Select Committee on Core Review reviewed that proposal yesterday afternoon.
The committee is seeking clarification on a number of points and would like to see some portions of the proposal expanded.
The Committee members agreed the section dealing with consultation needed expansion, that it would have to include City employees as well as the public. The costs to expand that segment of the review have yet to be determined.
There were also concerns that the workplan would not have provided enough contact with the Select Committee so the Committee is asking that as each “milestone” report is produced, that it include a “preamble of work to be done in the next phase”. This would keep the Select Committee involved in the process.
Committee members would also like some clarification on a number of items in the proposal including:
· Clarification on who is responsible for the gap analysis (assessing the services provided and whether the service levels are what they should be)
· a proposed 5% Administration fee that KPMG would like to add to the final price ,
· some mechanism for KPMG to verify the information they have been given by the City is accurate,
· qualifications of the person who would be conducting the salary bench marking and the communities being used for comparison
· clarification on the use of the final report. KPMG wants to keep full rights for the use of the final report and restrict the City in how the report is released, saying the City can only release the full report, not just portions of it.
Calls for meetings with the proponent are being set up to deal with the areas of concern. It could be that clarification or resolution of the areas of concern could lead to additional costs.
Councillor Frank Everitt says he believes that when the dust settles, the contract will be under $350 thousand dollars, wich is how much the City has allotted for the Core Review.
The Committee will submit its report to Council on Monday evening, recommending the contract be awarded to KPMG subject to mutual agreement on the noted areas of concern.
If Council approves the proposal, the Core review could get under way in early April, with the final report with recommendations due to Council in September of this year.
Comments
In the absence of a municipal auditors office this will be money well spent. Currently there is nothing in place to assure that we are getting proper value for money.
It is too bad that they will not be looking at the two biggest line items in the annual budget, police and fire prevention.
The City Of Prince George will not release the costs to tax payers regarding their run at Brian Skakun last year. Their reason was that they didn’t want it known what the City is willing to pay in legal costs to go after an individual in case they need to do this again in the future.
Now, a few months later they announce that they are willing to pay up to $350 000 for a review, then they put it out for bid.
As a tax payer in this City, I sure feel like I am getting hosed more and more. I hope Sherry Green and her new Executive Assistant start to improve on this concern-so far it ain’t working for me!!
The City Of Prince George will not release the costs to tax payers regarding their run at Brian Skakun last year. Their reason was that they didn’t want it known what the City is willing to pay in legal costs to go after an individual in case they need to do this again in the future.
Now, a few months later they announce that they are willing to pay up to $350 000 for a review, then they put it out for bid.
As a tax payer in this City, I sure feel like I am getting hosed more and more. I hope Sherry Green and her new Executive Assistant start to improve on this concern-so far it ain’t working for me!!
I was under the impression the core review is supposed to be impartial and a fair assessment of the city operations. In my opinion there are already red flags because the select committee, which is for all intents and purposes representing the bureaucracy in town, wants to have too much involvement in this process. They should be taking a backseat and let the auditor do thier job. As for having to negotiate whether the FULL report should be made available is a huge red flag. We will pay upwards of $350k for this review there should be no question to the report in it’s entirety being easily available to the public. This thing smelled from the start with only one bidder and is getting stinkier by the day.
Is it normal practice for the City to only accept one price for a tender? I have seen some tenders get cancelled because they only received one bid in the past.
KPMG’s demand that only the full report be released is a good thing. That way it cannot be cherry picked to bring out good practices by the city while leaving bad ones in the shadows. Best to get these kind of details settled at the start.
This is money very well spent!
KPMG is fairly well respected in this line of work and under budget so accepting the single bid appears fair.
I hope this concern is not removed from the terms,”KPMG wants to keep full rights for the use of the final report and restrict the City in how the report is released, saying the City can only release the full report, not just portions of it.”
This report is our report, this committee better not seize control and turning it into a bunch of idealistic pieces. Good on KPMG for saying they can’t do that.
KPMG is a foreign company operating out of the Netherlands. My concern is are they involved in any way with “Public Private Partnership” if they are I would want to avoid them like the pleague.
“… that it would have to include City employees as well as the public.”
I don’t see how including the city employees as a group will help any review? Their input will no doubt center around saving their lazy asses.
I personally think we are simply going to see a huge push to privatize everything from city road repair to parks maintenance, which might not be a bad thing IF it is kept to local contractors and not multinational corporations who are not answerable to anyone. green said as much in her speech about how she wants the city to go forward and the areas that she feels needs looking at. Hopefully there is enough democracy left in this corrupt town to at least send any P3 inititives to a referendum and not an AAP.
So someone needs to clearify for me how a core review is going to enhance services such as road maintenace,snow removal,garbage and sewer and water.
As I see it, the above mentioned are the city core services. Being a home owner in this community for the past twenty years I am can honestly say I have been more than happy with my services as a whole. However, I would agree with some of the writers that say, some of the services are a little to be desired. I certainly take issue with how our roads have been maintained over the past few winters.
Interestingly enough, this year I mad a few enquires regarding this concern. I was advised that the snow removal patten and priorities were changed in 2009. I was advised that the down town core from Vancouver st. to Goerge st. 1st ave to 12 are the new priorities. Instead 15th, 5th, 10th, Winnipeg, Ospika, Queensway. I note the very roads we use to get to the down town. When I asked why, the pattern was changed, i recieved no answer!
It seems simple to me, if the road needs plowing you plow it, if a pot hole needs fixing you fix it. If a water line breaks ,you fix it. I think you see my point. So why would we need someone to conduct a review in order to tell us what we are doing wrong???
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