October 20, 2021, at 12:00 PM

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The meeting is called to order at 12:00 PM; it being noted that the following were in remote attendance: Councillor M. van Holst; and L. Higgs.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

None.

3.   Scheduled Items

None.

4.   Items for Direction

None.

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

5.1   Request for Proposal 21-26 Internal Audit Services

That the following actions be taken with respect to the appointment of an outsourced internal auditor for Request for Proposal (RFP) 21-26 Internal Audit Services for the City of London:

a)    the firm of MNP LLP BE APPOINTED as the preferred firm for the provision of internal audit services for a period of three years beginning January 1, 2022 plus the option to renew for two (2) additional one (1) year terms; 

b)    the Civic Administration BE AUTHORIZED to undertake all the administrative acts that are necessary in connection with this contract; 

c)    approval hereby given BE CONDITIONAL upon the Corporation entering into a formal contract to the satisfaction of the Deputy City Manager, Finance Supports relating to the subject matter of this approval; and,

d)    the attached proposed by-law (Appendix “A”) BE INTRODUCED to delegate the approval of the Internal Audit Services Agreement to the City Treasurer and to provide the Mayor and City Clerk authority to execute the Agreement.

Motion Passed

6.   Confidential (Enclosed for Members only.)

6.1   Confidential Trade Secret or Scientific, Technical, Commercial, Financial or Labour Relations Information, Supplied to the City / Personal Matters/Identifiable Individual

That the Audit Committee convene, In Closed Session, for the purpose of considering the following:

6.1.    Confidential Trade Secret or Scientific, Technical, Commercial, Financial or Labour Relations Information, Supplied to the City / Personal Matters/Identifiable Individual

A matter pertaining to the security of the property of the Corporation as it contains commercial and financial information supplied in confidence to the Corporation, the disclosure of which could be reasonably expected to prejudice significantly the competitive position or interfere significantly with the contractual or other negotiations of a person, group of persons or organization, result in similar information no longer being supplied to the Corporation where it in the public interest that similar information continue to be so supplied and result in undue loss or gain to any person, group, committee or financial institution or agency and matters related to the personal information about identifiable individuals, including municipal or local board employees related to the potential provision of internal audit services for the City of London, by an external organization.

Motion Passed

The Commiittee convened in closed session from 12:04 PM to 12:12 PM.

7.   Adjournment

That the meeting be adjourned.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 12:18 PM.

Full Transcript

Transcript provided by Lillian Skinner’s London Council Archive. Note: This is an automated speech-to-text transcript and may contain errors. Speaker names are not identified.

View full transcript (16 minutes)

Okay, before we start, I’m just gonna ask my colleagues on the committee if they can signal that they are here so I can ensure quorum before I start the meeting. Thanks, Ms. Higgs and Councillor Van Halst, that’s enough for quorum. I know Councillor Turner isn’t joining us and I think Councillor Halmer should be along any moment.

So we do have quorum. So I’m gonna call the special meeting of the audit committee to order. This meeting is being held during the COVID-19 emergency. You can check the city’s website for any details on any impacts on city services.

Our meetings today can be viewed via live streaming on YouTube and the city’s website. The city of London is also committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for council standing and advisory committee meetings and information upon request to make a request for any city service, please contact accessibility at London.ca or 519-661-2489 extension 2425. We have a special audit agenda today, which means we do do the exposures of pecuniary interest but we’ll be moving pretty much into closed session after that. So I’ll just look for any disclosure of the pecuniary interest from many members.

I don’t see any, which means we don’t have any consent or scheduled or items for direction, deferred matters and other business can be dealt with after the in-camera session. We have one matter to go into confidential session four. The reason is outlined on the public agenda. I’ll look for a motion to move into session.

Councilor Van Hulse moved seconded by Ms. Higgs. Any discussion? No?

All those in favor by hand? Motion’s carried. Okay, we’ll just take a moment to turn off the feeds and I’ll let you know when we’re ready. And just a, okay, we are back in public session.

I’m gonna go to Ms. Higgs to report out on our in-camera session. Of course, thank you. We’ll be happy to put forward the following recommendation for consideration that the following actions be taken with respect to the appointment of an outsourced internal auditor for request for proposal RFP 21-26 internal audit services for the city of London.

Part A, the firm of MNP LLP be appointed as the preferred firm for the provision of internal audit services for a period of three years beginning on January 1st, 2022, plus an option to renew for two additional one-year terms. Part B, civic administration be authorized to undertake all the administrative acts that are necessary in connection with this contract. Part C, approval hereby given be conditional upon the corporation entering into a formal contract to the satisfaction of the deputy city manager, finance supports relating to the subject matter of this approval, and part D, the attached proposed bylaw appendix A, be introduced to delegate the approval of the internal audit services agreement to the city treasurer and to provide the mayor and city clerk authority to execute the agreement. And that reference to the attached bylaw that has been circulated to committee members, but for public transparency, I will read it.

It is a bylaw to authorize the city treasurer to approve internal audit services agreement between the corporation of the city of London and MNPLLP, and to authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute an agreement. Whereas subsection five, three of the municipal act, 2001, SO-2001, C-25 as amended provides that municipal powers shall be exercised by bylaw, and whereas section nine of the municipal act provides a municipality has the capacity rights and privileges of a national person for the purpose of exercising its authority under this or any other act, and whereas subsection 10, two of the municipal act provides that a municipality may pass bylaws respecting the governance structure of a municipality and its local board’s accountability and transparency of the municipality, and its operations of its local boards and their operations and the financial management of the municipality and the local boards, and whereas municipality has approved the appointment of MNPLLP to provide internal audit services. Now, therefore, the municipal council of the city of London shall enact the following one. City treasurer is authorized to approve an agreement between the corporation of the city of London and MNPLLP to provide internal audit services, the agreement, to the mayor and city clerk are hereby authorized to execute the agreement by the city treasurer under the delegated authority provided in section one of this bylaw, three, the bylaw shall come into force and effect on the day that it is passed, and then the references for the passing, which has not happened yet because it goes to council first.

Ms. Higgs, that is a multi-part motion. Are you willing to move that then? Yes.

  • Okay, and a seconder, Councillor Vanholst, any discussion on the motion? I will, if you’ll allow me to speak from the chair, I’m gonna make one comment. Certainly, I’m supportive of the motion. I think it was a robust RFP process.

What I do wanna say at this point is, I would like to thank all of the staff teams who did all of the work in supporting the RFP process from the development of the RFP to all of the assessment. There were obviously many people involved. These things don’t just come to a vote at council, but it is a function of a lot of work by a lot of people. I also wanna thank all the proponents who applied to the position and their interest in it.

Again, I’m supportive of the motion, and if there’s no further discussion, we can move to a vote. Okay, all those in favor of the motion as a stance? That motion carries. Okay, and given there’s nothing else on this special agenda, all I have left is a motion to adjourn.

We’d like to move that. Councilor Van Holst, seconded by Ms. Higgs. All those in favor of adjournment?

Motion carries. And we are adjourned. Thank you for your time today, everyone.