D.B.Cooper's Document Dump - A BIG Reason To Say NO To A 2026 Olympics Bid

Today I'm debuting a new segment I'm calling D.B.Cooper's Document Dump, in honour of the Olympic funding announcement that came out at 3:30 in the afternoon, on the day before Good Friday.  A spectacular example of the famed "Document Dump", in which governments release information to the press/public late in the day on a Friday in an attempt to sneak things past the media.  In response, I'm having a little document dump of my own.  Mine will be after 6pm, but it will happen early in the week.

First let me say that any information I use is typically available to the general public on line but, occasionally it requires record searches and FOIP requests.  It costs a few dollars, but the information is available to you if you know where to look.

Today's document is a report from the City of Calgary Auditor's Office dated June 27th, 2011.  It is the Report on the Audit of the 16th Avenue North Urban Corridor Project, AKA the 16th Ave. Extension.

Now let me start by telling you I love this sort of stuff.  In my younger days I worked for a large corporation in a department that had a lot of interaction with Internal Audit.  I learnt how to read audit reports and on occasion made a contribution to them.  That said, not everyone (hardly anyone) shares my enthusiasm and to be honest with you, I even find reading these things tedious at times.

They do need to be read however, because sometimes you come across things that make your eyes open wide in disbelief.  The audit revealed that the project came in 2 years late and $20 million over budget.  Among the things the audit found:

• Insufficient project planning limited the ability of the City to effectively manage construction to time, budget, and scope.
• The project schedule lacked detail for a project of its scale and was created AFTER key events had already taken place.
• Changes in design during the construction process added to increased expense due to rework.
• Documentation of roles and responsibilities was not circulated among project team members.
• High level project risks were identified prior to and early on in the project.
• Not all contracts were tendered during the construction process with contracts simply being "rolled over" to contractors.
• Effective controls over the authorisation of expenditure weren't always evident.
• Design consulting agreements were NOT circulated to council. One such agreement initially for $78,399 became, through extensions, $1.978 million for the duration of the project.

The list seems like an almost comical "How Not To" of project management and comes with 5 recommendations (I haven't checked to see if they've followed up).

The bottom line my friends is that this is what happened on one $69 million, later $89 million project.  We need to take the time to make sure that the city is capable of spending our tax dollars responsibly before we set it loose on a project over 40 times that size.

There's too much at stake to rush into this.  Now is NOT the time.  Contact the mayor or your city councillor (or both).  Tell them you want your say in a plebiscite, and then tell them you DO NOT WANT Calgary to pursue a 2026 Olympic bid.

16th Avenue North Urban Corridor Project Audit Report

If you have a document you'd like to show me send it to me at dbcooperkillarney@gmail.com along with an explanation of what it is you're sending me and I'll give it a look.

D.B.C.