City employee who forced fire-paramedic station audits quits

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2015 (3808 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CITY of Winnipeg auditor Brian Whiteside, a key figure in the 2012 fire-paramedic station saga, has resigned.

Whiteside, who effectively forced the city to engage in an external audit into the procurement and construction of four new fire-paramedic stations, chose to leave his job after 18 years of service, for what he describes as personal reasons.

“It was time to go,” he said Thursday, noting Winnipeg has a new chief administrative officer and has dealt with three external audits into city construction projects and real estate transactions over the past two years.

“The last two years were extremely difficult. This is entirely my own decision.”

Whiteside was appointed city auditor in 2009. When the fire-paramedic station scandal emerged in 2012, he refused to sign off on an internal review into the program.

This led to a joint call for an external audit, along with former mayor Sam Katz. That set off a series of events that included the departure of chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl.

That fire-paramedic station audit, conducted by consulting firm EY, concluded in 2013 that contracts were not awarded fairly, council was left in the dark about the program and Sheegl was the primary official responsible.

Whiteside also administered an external EY audit into major Winnipeg real estate transactions and an external KPMG audit into Winnipeg’s police headquarters project. In 2014, the audits concluded severe mismanagement occurred, city processes were not followed and in some cases properties were exchanged or sold without appraisals. The police headquarters became the subject of a full-blown RCMP investigation.

In January, rookie Mayor Brian Bowman, who campaigned on a pledge to clean up city hall, demanded to know why Whiteside had yet to produce quarterly reports into the city’s response to the trio of audits.

Bowman issued a statement on Thursday, thanking Whiteside for his service.

Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), who served as council’s property chairman during the real estate scandals, said Whiteside did a good job for the city during a difficult time.

Councillors will consider a plan to appoint audit manager Bryan Mansky the acting city auditor on April 22. The city will launch a national search for a new city auditor, Bowman said.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca