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Feds rip T.O. agency's contract handling
$10M waterfront deals awarded without bidding
By CP
OTTAWA -- Toronto's waterfront agency handed out more untendered contracts, even as a federal audit was raising alarms about the forbidden practice, newly disclosed records show.
The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. signed five sole-source deals between April and December 2005, in addition to 10 found by federal auditors in a critical report released last year.
In all, the public agency responsible for sprucing up Toronto's waterfront has spent almost $10 million on sole-source contracts, which are specifically forbidden under a funding agreement with the federal government.
Records released under the Access to Information Act show federal officials have been concerned about too-cozy relationships between agency officials and the beneficiaries of untendered deals.
"This may imply that the contractors are not de facto dealing with TWRC at arm's length. This increases the need for a competitive process," says an internal memo.
The corporation was created in 2001 to clean up and modernize Toronto's sometimes dingy lakeshore, partly to prepare for an Olympic bid that later fizzled.
The federal government, which provides a third of the funding, signed an agreement with the corporation requiring that contracts for construction, goods or services worth more than $75,000 be subject to competitive bids without exception.
An audit made public last December cited 10 deals above that threshold that had been signed without competition. Those contracts represented almost a third of all the money the corporation had spent on procurement.
And records disclosed by Treasury Board show the corporation signed an additional five such contracts by the end of the year, together worth more than $800,000.
Kristin Jenkins, a TWRC spokesman, said the two sides remain at odds over procurement policy. The agency's own rules require sole-source contracts over $25,000 be reported to its board.
$10M waterfront deals awarded without bidding
By CP
OTTAWA -- Toronto's waterfront agency handed out more untendered contracts, even as a federal audit was raising alarms about the forbidden practice, newly disclosed records show.
The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. signed five sole-source deals between April and December 2005, in addition to 10 found by federal auditors in a critical report released last year.
In all, the public agency responsible for sprucing up Toronto's waterfront has spent almost $10 million on sole-source contracts, which are specifically forbidden under a funding agreement with the federal government.
Records released under the Access to Information Act show federal officials have been concerned about too-cozy relationships between agency officials and the beneficiaries of untendered deals.
"This may imply that the contractors are not de facto dealing with TWRC at arm's length. This increases the need for a competitive process," says an internal memo.
The corporation was created in 2001 to clean up and modernize Toronto's sometimes dingy lakeshore, partly to prepare for an Olympic bid that later fizzled.
The federal government, which provides a third of the funding, signed an agreement with the corporation requiring that contracts for construction, goods or services worth more than $75,000 be subject to competitive bids without exception.
An audit made public last December cited 10 deals above that threshold that had been signed without competition. Those contracts represented almost a third of all the money the corporation had spent on procurement.
And records disclosed by Treasury Board show the corporation signed an additional five such contracts by the end of the year, together worth more than $800,000.
Kristin Jenkins, a TWRC spokesman, said the two sides remain at odds over procurement policy. The agency's own rules require sole-source contracts over $25,000 be reported to its board.
