Published on: 22/03/2017

On March 21, the Auditor General of Toronto (AG), Beverly Romeo-Beehler, issued a Staff Report entitled Detection of Warning Signs for Potential Bid Rigging Should Be Strengthened (Report attached) to be discussed at the Audit Committee meeting on March 24. The Report focuses on alleged "bid rigging" on road resurfacing contracts in the City between 2010 and 2015.

The Report makes six recommendations to Toronto Council for how to address the alleged issues with the procurement process in the City, including:

Adopting the practice of keeping the identity of prospective bidders who purchased bid documents confidential; and,

Ensuring all divisions/agencies/corporations of the City that contract out construction work similarly address this alleged issue.

The Staff Report is short on detail, however the accompanying AG Report entitled Detection of Warning Signs for Potential Bid Rigging Should be Strengthened (attached) provides a clearer picture of how the City has reached its conclusions and recommendations on this issue.

The GTSWCA is continuing to review the recommendations made in this Report to understand the potential cross-construction impacts. We are working with a third-party government relations firm on several City of Toronto issues, including how we should be responding to this Report and any additional recommendations that we can offer around the City's project estimation practices.

If you have any questions on the AG Report or any subsequent follow-up work that the GTSWCA will be undertaking, please contact Patrick at 905-629-7766 ext. 222 or patrick.mcmanus@oswca.org.

Download City of Toronto Auditor Report
Download Imporoving the Tendering Process for Paving Contracts
Download Report Summary

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