The City of Edmonton has spent $616 million of taxpayer money on consulting services in the past five years.
An audit released Thursday showed the city went from spending $90 million in 2008 to more than $120 per year since 2013.
The city planned to spend $227 million over the five-year span, but changes to orders increased the number to $392 million—a 72 per cent hike.
Furthermore, $245 million of the total five-year sum was miscoded in the system as an expense other than consulting.
All things considered, the city’s chief financial officer, Todd Burge, said Edmonton is headed in the right direction.
“I actually think the consulting audit is better than it appears,” he said. “I think we’ve made considerable progress in reducing our use of consulting services and improving our accountability around consulting services.”
But a city councillor questioned the value of the services.
“What I want to know is just how the cost ballooned this far out of control and what we're getting for this,” Ward 3 Councillor Jon Dziadyk said. “Have our expectations been met because this seems like we're spending a lot of money and I'm not too clear on what we're getting for it.”
The report recommended the city to create a training program for staff in charge of classifying transactions, and to improve estimation when ordering consulting services to avoid order changes.
With files from Timm Bruch
