The Transition Board has recently given us a peek at the structure that it may recommend to the provincial government for the new Ottawa. Further details will be given at a series of public sessions during the week of July 24.

The structure, we are told, is intended to be flexible to allow for maximum cost effectiveness and innovation in the way in which services are delivered. In this context, it is curious that the Transition Board, in its first "cut" at ensuring cost effectiveness, would propose that the crucial audit function report to the City Manager rather than to Council.

The new City will have a $ 2 billion budget, approximately. It is my view that the public and its elected representatives will need independent information if it is to derive the expected cost savings from the amalgamation turmoil. This, after all, is one of the principal reasons for undertaking the whole exercise. Audits are required to ensure, not only that public dollars are properly spent (i.e. to prevent fraud), but that the public's dollars are spent wisely, according to best practices.

Cost effectiveness audits will not, in themselves, ensure responsible practices - political will is also necessary. The point is that the information is necessary - although it may not be sufficient - to have a chance at cost effective government. It is best that audit teams be independent of the administrators being audited and that their results be made public .

The senior levels of government have given themselves such tools. Let's ask the Transition Board and the provincial government to install the same mechanism at the very start of the new Ottawa. If we don't do it now, we may not get it for quite a while. Bureaucrats, and some politicians, have preferred to have an internal system which can be quietly controlled. This explains the current reporting system at both the City of Ottawa and at the Region. This preference for a comfortable approach may also explain the recommendation in this "work-in-progress".

Jacques Legendre
Councillor