Core Review Underway
Monday, April 30, 2012 @ 6:40 PM
Prince George, B.C.- The Core Review contract with KPMG has been finalized, and the price tag has gone up.
The Core Review Committee had reviewed the terms of the contract and the scope of the work KPMG was proposing to do. The Committee had some concerns with the outline from KPMG and called for some clarity on some issues and negotiations on some others.
The budget for the review is $350 thousand dollars, but, with the expanded consultation plan ( an additional $28.8 thousand dollars) administration fees of 2.5% and the HST, the total cost will top the budgeted amount.
The report from the Chair of the Committee, (Mayor Shari Green) says the agreed to price is $313,720 but that “does not include administration costs or the HST.” However, Mayor Green says the City will get back at least some of the money paid out in HST so “We are close to the number(budget) but we don’t anticipate going over.”
Mayor Green says the contract was executed on April 16th, the work plan for the core review anticipates a completed report on late October, about a month later than initially anticipated.
Comments
KPMG’s first recommendation:
a city the size of Prince George only requires 6 councilors and a part time mayor.
Mayor Sherrif Green’s response to KPMG:
I’m not talking to you anymore. Blink, blink…..throw hair back.
“…we donât anticipate going over.”
That’s just too funny. Is it a contract or is it not? Unless the city decides to change the scope of the project there is absolutely no way this thing could go over.
Could postpone this until the HST disappears.
The HST will disappear and then, as if by magic, we will get something called the GST @ 5% for the time being, and PST for 7%, for the time being.
Under that system we may not have to pay PST at all and may have to pay part of the GST. Don’t recall what the system was for municipalities.
My budjet for last month was $4.00 and I acheived it. Of course this was minus all utility, mortgage,car payments and groceries. I expect to go a little over budget to pay for new shocks for my vehicle.
I go for that, 350000 to add to Road Repair.
I believe under the current HST model, governments and universities get
100% refund on federal portion of HST
75% refund on provincial portion of HST
So (($313,720 + $28,800)*(1 + .07*.75))
= $348,514.10
Under the old system, I believe municipalities paid the full 7% PST. Much higher bill.
Makes one wonder what Mr Bates is doing.Is it not afunction of his job to run a core review on a continuing basis so that all is within the budget or is that just adream.
cheers
That should be his function.
But that is an internal review and by simple definition a biased review, whether it actually is or is not does not matter.
Therefore, like safety reviews, there are cycles over which one ought to run external reviews. In some cases, it is mandatory by the authorities who have jurisdiction over the matter. I suspect it will become mandatory in BC in the short term.
Even with a simple task such as proofreading a document, it is best if an external pair of eyes reads the document for both content and spelling/grammar. The author(s) can read over the same mistake time and time again and fail to see it, even though they would notice the same error in someone else’s report.
It is kind of funny they are going to use the entire 350,0o00 almost to the penny. Wonder what the bid would have been if we had not had an estimate of 350k from the city already approved and set aside by council
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