CityHousing Hamilton says it needs city's trust despite critical audit

Hamilton's largest social housing provider is reassuring councillors it's taking seriously a new audit report that reveals slopply handling of bids, quotes and cash — especially since it's about to get millions more in public dollars.

It's important that we have the trust of our city, of our board, of our council.- Tom Hunter, CEO, CityHousing Hamilton

Tom Hunter, CEO of the city-owned CityHousing Hamilton (CHH), says the agency has already fixed many of the stark recommendations in a new report from city auditor Charles Brown.

The rest, he said, will be fixed between now and 2019.

CHH is about to embark on millions of dollars worth of building and repairs. In light of that, Hunter said, its wants to fix the problems ,which leave room for corruption in its operations.

"It's important that we have the trust of our city, of our board, of our council," he said.

"We have a lot of exciting work around development and we want the confidence that it's being done well."

Hunter made the comments after a report that said the agency had some major flaws around its procurement process.

In some cases, Brown's report said, one person did all the elements of procurement, from solicitation to paying the contractor.

The report also said CHH lacked documentation on how bids and quotes were invited, received and awarded, and around change orders and emergency situations.

In some cases, awarded quotes were signed by someone who didn't have the authority to sign them, or weren't signed at all.

I was very concerned when this was raised when we were approving spending $50 million more on housing.- Coun. Lloyd Ferguson

The report also said CHH doesn't have enough control over cash handling. Prospective bidders pay $100 to get bid documents.

Those were paid in cash, the report said, and there was no accounting of how the money was used.

Millions in new building

On some projects, that could be $1,500, Hunter told city council's audit, finance and administration committee on Thursday.

The latter situation is already fixed, Hunter told councillors. CHH no longer takes cash for bid documents. Now it uses Biddingo, a common website for government tenders.

CHH has also made progress on segregating duties so one person doesn't handle an entire project, he said. Before this, it was "a practice, but not a policy."

CHH is due to get a large chunk of the $50 million the city is handing out for a 10-year poverty reduction strategy. It will use the money to repair vacant units and build new ones.

CHH is also building hundreds of seniors units at the Queenston traffic circle, and rebuilding units at the Jamesville housing complex in the west harbour.

City will track CHH's progress

Brown's report caused tension at a meeting last week.

Donna Skelly, Ward 7 councillor, didn't want to approve the $50 million anti-poverty plan until they discussed the CHH report. The councillors on the board — Chad Collins, Matthew Green, Jason Farr, Tom Jackson and Doug Conley — bristled at that idea. Some accused Skelly of trying to grab headlines.

But Lloyd Ferguson, Ancaster councillor, had similar sentiments Thursday.

"I was very concerned when this was raised when we were approving spending $50 million more on housing," Ferguson said.

CHH will report back in six months on its progress.