Ward 1 Coun. Mark Signoretti withdrew his motion Tuesday asking Auditor General Ron Foster to audit the $80 million Maley Drive extension, which is set to open before the end of the year.
While city staff have said the project is on time, and that a small surplus was available to do more four-laning of Maley than expected, Signoretti said he has gotten questions from the public about the project.
In addition to a Sudbury.com story in October that revealed the city still needs to purchase a final stretch of land owned by Dalron, Signoretti said he's received questions about things like the quality of asphalt being used in the project.
“There have been concerns from construction regarding Maley Drive,” Signoretti said.
He asked Foster whether people with concerns about possible wrongdoing in the construction can contact his office.
Foster said yes, that the wrongdoing hotline is set up to hear a range of complaints, “waste, abuse, theft, fraud – a number of potential concerns.
“That would be more efficient than a broad audit,” he said. “Any of those concerns could be dealt with through the hotline.”
It also emerged during discussions that KPMG, the city's external auditor, will be reviewing the project, and the province and federal government likely will too, because of the amount of public money involved. Each level of government provided one-third of the budget.
Foster said the province normally audits projects as big as Maley, especially when the surplus was found and used to expand the scope of the project.
“They would be doing some reviews of variances of the project as it stands,” he said.
Ward 7 Coun. Mike Jakubo said the audit committee will be approving KPMG's audit plan Dec. 3, and it includes Maley Drive.
“I wouldn’t want Mr. Foster to be doing the same work as KPMG,” Jakubo said, adding their audit will look for signs of fraud.
“If that’s what my colleague is worried about, it’s up to KPMG to let us know.”
The extension includes three roundabouts, the first of which opened Monday at the entrance of Collège Boréal.
