A Vancouver councillor says City Hall needs an independent officer to strengthen financial accountability.
On Monday, Vancouver Green Party Coun. Pete Fry announced tabling a motion to introduce “a city comptroller bylaw for budget efficiency and asset management framework” that he says would improve asset management and ensure greater transparency for city spending.
The motion would see the creation of a new position, a city comptroller, working as an independent oversight officer reporting directly to city council.
Fry tells 1130 NewsRadio that in many jurisdictions, the officer’s work would be the function of an Auditor General, which Vancouver already has.
“This is a secondary piece,” said Fry.
“A lot of this work happens independently in different departments, but not one overarching city approach.”
Fry, who in January announced his run for mayor in the October municipal elections, says the oversight is especially necessary under Mayor Ken Sim’s leadership.
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“We had quite a rigid, austerity budget that’s been presented. Yet somehow money keeps showing up for side projects that the mayor has deemed important,” said Fry, citing the funding of a new police training academy and Sim’s own motion to allocate up to $2 million in city funds to host a free fireworks festival this summer.
“Allocations of funds that really suggest there is perhaps more influence from a political nature on the Chief Financial Officer who currently has that oversight,” said Fry.
He says his motion is mainly focused on getting someone to develop a new asset management framework.
“This is a different kind of tool to ensure that we have appropriate oversight that breaks down some of those silos and barriers that we might see if we have different departments doing that oversight.”
Fry’s motion will go before city council on Wednesday. If approved, it will direct staff to draft the bylaw and work with the Auditor General and others to prepare a coordinated protocol for the new role.
-With files from Raynaldo Suarez