HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO-2022-500 - 4th Quarter 2022 Audit Status Report www.kitchener.ca
REPORT TO: Audit Committee
DATE OF MEETING: December 19, 2022
SUBMITTED BY: Corina Tasker, Internal Auditor, 519-741-2200 ext. 7361
PREPARED BY: Corina Tasker, Internal Auditor, 519-741-2200 ext. 7361
WARD(S) INVOLVED: All
DATE OF REPORT: December 9, 2022
REPORT NO.: CAO-2022-500
SUBJECT: 4th Quarter 2022 Audit Status Report
RECOMMENDATION:
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That report CAO-2022-500, regarding the 4 Quarter 2022 Audit Status Report, be
received for information.
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:
The purpose of this report is to provide information regarding recent audits.
There are three audits included in this report as noted in the table below.
Results of the audits were positive, with no fraud detected. However, opportunities for
improvement have been identified.
There are no financial implications.
agenda in advance of the council / committee meeting.
This report supports the delivery of core services.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The following report provides a summary of the Internal Audit assurance and consulting
services completed during the period of October to December 2022. The table below shows
the audits contained in this report.
Division / Topic Scope
Physical Inventory Count Verification
Market Alcohol Inventory Controls
Pandemic Debrief After-Action Review
Assurance work is in progress on the following topics:
Parking and Mileage Reimbursement compliance
Technology Field Assets physical inventory
Inventory audit status update
Underground Locate Service organizational structure and capacity analysis
*** This information is available in accessible formats upon request. ***
Please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994 for assistance.
Consulting work is in progress on the following reviews:
Training Documentation - process review
The physical inventory count verification found six variances, which resulted in a $5,621.94
write-up. Total adjustments for the year were $576,333 write-down, driven by large write
downs in road salt and brine due to measurement errors and inconsistent reporting of usage.
Overall, excluding the known issues with salt and brine, the physical inventory process is in
control and no concerns were identified.
The Market Alcohol controls review found that while current staff are tracking alcohol
inventory at the event level, there are still control gaps that would allow theft of alcohol by
staff or vendors and theft of cash by staff. Implementing an ongoing inventory tracking
sheet with supporting checks and balances will alleviate these risks.
input on what worked well, what were the challenges, and what could be improved going
forward. Responses are summarized in this report. Management will work to evaluate and
prioritize recommendations for improvement.
BACKGROUND:
The overarching goal of internal audit is . This
includes, but is not limited to, protecting the long-term health of the organization, its
financial and physical assets, its reputation, its ability to perform critical services and the
safety and well-being of employees and citizens.
Internal Audit provides assurance and consulting services in accordance with the
Internatio
2012. These services are independent, objective activity designed to add value and
y
bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of
risk management, control, and governance processes.
Assurance services provide an objective assessment of evidence to provide an independent
opinion or conclusions regarding an entity, operation, function, process, system, or other
subject matter.
Consulting services are advisory in nature and are generally performed at the specific
request of an engagement client. When performing consulting services, the internal auditor
should maintain objectivity and not assume management responsibility.
Audit topics are selected independently by the Internal Auditor and approved by Audit
Committee on an annual basis. Audit results are brought back to Audit Committee in reports
such as this on a quarterly basis as completed.
REPORT:
1. Physical Inventory Count Verification
Completed: October 29, 2022
Overview
The Procurement-Stores section of the Financial Operations division is responsible for the
receipt, storage, and disbursement of a variety of physical inventory used in City
operations. This inventory is stored within the Stores warehouse within the Kitchener
Operations Facility (KOF), as well as some larger items being stored outside in the yard.
(e.g., large pipe, catch basins, aggregates, salt)
Stores staff perform an annual inventory of all parts and materials to ensure that financial
records match the amounts on hand. Internal audit then counts a sample of parts to provide
assurance that staff counts are accurate. This is a standard audit activity.
In addition, staff make adjustments to inventory balances within SAP throughout the year
and during the physical inventory count to restore the financial balance to equal the quantity
on hand. An analysis of the total adjustments for the year is also included below.
Definitions
Controllable stock - stock which the Stores staff have direct control over with regards to
purchases and usage. Located within the warehouse.
Floor-to-sheet audit randomly selecting parts in the warehouse, counting them, and
comparing the quantity to what is in the financial system (SAP).
Sheet-to-floor audit pre-selecting parts based on unit value or total value, counting
them, and comparing the quantity to what is in SAP. This includes both warehouse and
outdoor inventory.
Shrinkage rate the percentage of total inventory purchases that are written-down or lost
due to factors such as theft, error, fraud, or damage.
Uncontrollable stock - stock which is located in the KOF yard which are not under direct
supervision by the Stores division.
Write-down - the quantity on hand was less than what was recorded in SAP and therefore
the financial records were decreased to match the physical quantity. Usually occurs when
inventory is used without updating SAP.
Write-up the quantity on hand was more than what was recorded in SAP and therefore
the financial records were increased to match the physical quantity. Usually occurs due to
keying errors when setting up or relieving inventory, or when the wrong unit of measure
was used (e.g., number of cartons counted instead of individual parts).
Audit Process and Findings
Standard floor-to-sheet and sheet-to-floor audits were done to confirm the physical
quantity of parts on hand compared to what staff had counted. The audit covered 22%of
the total value of inventory. The sheet-to-floor audits covered the top 25 unit values and
top 25 total values. The floor-to-sheet audits consisted of 20 random shelf locations.
Six variances, which equates to 9% of the sample, were found through this verification
process which resulted in a $5,621.94 write-up. This is considered a very low value of
variances found through the audit process and is consistent with prior years. It represents
0.2% of total inventory on hand.
Total Adjustments
In addition to reporting on the variances found through the audit process during the
physical inventory, the total adjustments for the year are also reported below. These
numbers include the adjustments made by staff during the physical inventory and the
$5,621 write-up driven by the internal audit verification, as well as all other adjustments
made throughout the year.
The purpose of this analysis is to identify any material groups or part numbers that have
large or unusual adjustments to ensure the root cause has been identified and actions put
in place to eliminate or reduce adjustments in the future.
(Note that positive numbers represent write-ups and negative numbers represent write-
downs.)
Year 2020 2021 2022
Controllable stock write-up $63,216 $15,762 $83,469
Uncontrollable stock write-$4,051 ($201,117) ($659,803)
up (down)
Total write-up (down) $65,803 ($141,271) ($576,333)
In 2022 the total adjustments for the year (Nov.15/21 to Nov.14/22) were $576,333 write-
down. This is a larger than usual write-down. Usually the total adjustments are a write-
down between $50,000 - $200,000 related to adjustments to aggregates in the yard. 2020
was an anomaly due to the aggregates not being adjusted and written off at all.
The 2022 total write-down represents 3.6% of the total inventory purchases for the year of
$16 million. Industry standards indicate that up to 2.5% is an acceptable shrinkage rate.
The ending inventory balance was $3,329,771.
Controllable Stock Adjustments
Of the 2022 adjustments, $83,469 write-up was from controllable stock. In 2022 the write-
up was attributable to multiple material groups and there was not a large write-up in any
specific part number. Write-ups are most often due to errors in issuing out stock, such as
using the wrong unit of measure causing too much inventory to be relieved. Several parts
had their unit of measure switched from imperial to metric measurements this year which
could be driving this higher than usual number of errors made. The write-up adjustment
then restores the inventory value to the correct amount.
As noted earlier this year, Stores is in the process of implementing regular cycle counts
which see each high moving part number counted at least three times per year, including
the full physical inventory. This will allow variances tobeidentified earlierand investigated
to determine root cause of the error, allowing real-time corrections to be made and
eliminating the need to write parts up or down.
Uncontrollable Stock Adjustments
The remaining $659,803 of write-down is related to stock which is outside in the KOF yard
which are not under direct supervision by Stores staff. It is impractical to have dedicated
staff monitoring the outdoor inventory on a 24/7 basis and therefore there is a reliance on
staff to inform Stores when they take inventory from the yard. However, this often does not
happen.
The recent aggregates review has resulted in a few low-dollar value aggregates that are
used by one operating area only to be removed from inventory and charged directly to the
operating area when purchased, which creates many efficiencies in the process and
reduces the need for the year end write off/variances for these particular aggregates.
For the remaining aggregates, work is planned to install signage, provide training, and
instructions for staff to better estimate the quantities they are taking based on equipment
volume (i.e. one load of x material = y tonnes). This way staff can more easily account for
material used on the workorder. This will also reduce the number of write-downs related
to aggregates when this is implemented. It is currently delayed due to resourcing
constraints.
The majority of th write-down can be traced to two specific parts:
1) Geomelt Brine - $120K write-down. During the physical inventory it was
found that this item has not ever been physically counted in the past and the
amount submitted for usage is an estimate only. This adjustment brings the
value in line with the actual quantity on hand and is made up of several years
of variances. A decision has been made to remove geomelt from inventory
entirely and expense it directly when purchased.
2) Road salt - $504K write-down. In the past the ending inventory balance of
salt has been estimated by measuring the size of the pile and calculating a
rough estimate of the volume of the cone shape. Any variance between this
estimate and the quantity recorded in SAP was charged out directly to the
winter maintenance budget (instead of being written down). Variances are
attributed to communication challenges between INS (Roads and Traffic) and
Stores, specific to usage timing and quantities.
It was recently discovered that for the past several years there has been a flaw
in the calculation method and the ending balances have not been realistic in
relation to the maximum capacity of the salt dome. A reconciliation was done
when the quantity was low and able to be weighed and measured. This has
resulted in the one-time extra-large write-down of $504K this year which will hit
the winter maintenance budget and show as a budget variance.
In future, staff are working to develop more accurate ways of measuring the
salt volume to avoid large write-offs. This includes ensuring that the SAP
volume is never higher than the maximum capacity of the salt dome.
It was also discovered that for the past few years that salt variances found
during the physical inventory were charged directly to the winter maintenance
budget rather than being included in the inventory write-downs. It was
treated as write-downs in the future for consistency with other parts. In the end
the amount still gets charged to the winter maintenance budget, however, it
will now get captured in the inventory adjustments reported through internal
audit.
The remaining write-down in uncontrollable stock of $35,803 can be attributed to multiple
other part numbers.
Conclusion
Overall, excluding the known issues with salt and brine, the physical inventory process is
in control and no concerns were identified. The adjustments to controllable stock are small
write-ups. Uncontrollable stock adjustments are typical and are expected given the current
uncontrolled environment. Improvements to measurement techniques and the
implementation of cycle counts will help reduce the amount of inventory adjustments.
2. Market Alcohol Control
Completed: September 21, 2022
Background
In 2013 an
found that there were no controls in place to ensure that all alcohol that was purchased on
behalf of the Market, for programs such as cooking classes and events, were accounted
for. There was no oversight of expenses or physical control of product, making the
process vulnerable to theft from both the public and staff. Recommendations were made
at the time to implement a tracking sheet and reconciliation process.
Market alcohol control is now part of the list of rotating controls and compliance audits,
and it is now time to perform a check of controls. This is particularly important given the
turnover in staff to ensure controls are still in place.
Audit Objective
The overall goal of this audit is to review and confirm adequate controls are in place to
ensure that alcohol purchases for the Market are used for their intended purpose and not
taken by staff or customers.
Note that this audit is driven by the goal of ensuring adequate controls are in place
regardless of the staff performing the work and does not reflect on the trustworthiness of
individual employees.
Scope and Methodology
The following activities were completed as part of this review:
Documentation of the end-to-end process in a swim lane diagram
Tour of Market kitchen and storage areas
Physical inventory count
Identification of existing or missing control points to ensure inventory records are
correct
Findings
Due to turnover in staff the recommended tracking process from 2013 was not being used.
New staff have created an event tracking process, however, there were still several control
gaps including lack of physical control of the inventory and lack of reconciliation of
purchases and cash by management.
Staff did indicate that work was in progress to build a locked area for the inventory, and
they would like to also implement a point-of-sale system to handle sales at events. This
would provide better control over receipts and allow for easy reconciliation of cash.
Recommendations
In addition to the improvements in progress, several recommendations were made. These
included detailed instructions on how to:
Confirm, track, and reconcile incoming purchases of alcohol.
Event day tracking and reconciliation of opening balances, uses during the event,
closing balance, and sales/deposits.
Periodic inventory counts
Conclusion
While current staff are tracking alcohol inventory at the event level, there are still control
gaps that would allow theft of alcohol by staff or vendors and theft of cash by staff.
Implementing an ongoing inventory tracking sheet with supporting checks and balances
will alleviate these risks.
A status report will be completed 1 year from the date of this report to ensure
recommendations have been implemented and controls are adequate.
3. Pandemic After-Action Review
Completed: July 5, 2022 (Statistics updated November 2, 2022)
Overview
An after-action review is an opportunity to identify and strengthen successful processes
and note lessons that need to be applied in emergency management plans and future
emergency responses. A successful after-action review is intended to contribute to a more
robust emergency management program by providing evidence for potential
improvements, better resource allocation, and building furthering connections with partner
agencies.
A formal after-action review template was provided by the Province of Ontario for all
municipalities to complete. The City of Kitchener has completed the template and shared
the recommendations with staff and the Region of Waterloo. This is a summary of the
content of that document.
Definitions
CEMC Community Emergency Management Coordinator; staf
emergency management program
CLT Corporate Leadership Team, consisting of the CAO and department heads,
responsible for non-pandemic business decisions
EOCMT emergency operations centre management team
EOC emergency operations centre which includes the EOCMT and sections responsible
for communications, planning, finance, operations, and logistics
IMS Incident Management System; a standardized methodology and approach to
managing and responding to any size incident, emergency, or pandemic
PPE personal protective equipment
Incident Type: Infectious Disease
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global
pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory
syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
Events:
-19 Pandemic commenced in January 2020
by asking all City of Kitchener Departments/Divisions to update their respective Divisional
Action Plans through the Business Continuity process. A review and updated inventory of
our Personal Protective Equipment (e.g., N95 masks, sterile gloves, and gowns) was also
initiated by the Kitchener Fire Department staff. Surveillance began to capture information
regarding the spread of the virus on a global scale and regular updates were provided to
the EOCMT through weekly situational reports.
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On March 6 2020, the City of Kitchener activated their Emergency Operations Centre
Management Team (EOCMT) to ready the municipality for the response to the evolving
Pandemic.
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On March 17 2020, the Province of Ontario declared a Provincial Health Emergency and
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on Wednesday, March 25 2020, The Region of Waterloo, the City of Kitchener and all six
of the other local municipalities declared local Emergencies as well. The Federal
Government of Canada did not declare a Federal emergency and concentrated on
providing Public Health guidance, financial assistance to Canadian citizens and
businesses through various financial relief initiatives.
The EOCMT Planning Section lead the recovery planning. Throughout the response and
worked closely with the other local municipalities and the Region of Waterloo. The Region
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of Waterloo initiated their Regional Pandemic Control Group on March 11 2020.
To help in the response and recovery efforts of this emergency, the pillars of emergency
management were leveraged - Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. These
pillars were integrated into our EOCMT throughout the past two years and can be
considered from the perspective of the emergency management continuum diagram below
(Public Safety Canada). Since the introduction of vaccines in December 2020, City staff
and community partners have responded and moved in and out of the response and
recovery phases, under several different provincial frameworks, several times due to new
Variants of Concerns (VOC) such as the Delta and Omicron.
Taking advice from local Public Health at various points in time, the City implemented
multiple safety measures to protect staff and the public including the following:
Ability to work from home when required by the Province for some roles
Physical distancing of 2 metres in all locations and equipment
Directional arrows / restrictions on flow of movement and other signage
Limiting access to certain City facilities throughout the pandemic
Cancelling public facing programs at various points in the pandemic
PPE including masking, goggles / eye protection, and plexi-glass barriers
Daily active screening for staff, contractors, and within private residences
Public screening, contact tracing, and masking when required by the province
Vaccination policy and rapid antigen testing program
Limited capacity when required by the province
More frequent and deep cleaning of facilities, vehicles, and shared equipment
COVID Safety Training and Safety Talks
Case and Contact Management
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board/Ministry of Labour Occupational Illness
Reporting
Improved facility ventilation
which lifts the majority of public health restrictions. On March 25, 2022, the City of
Kitchener and local area municipalities rescinded their emergency declarations. However,
the City retained all health and safety measures for staff until May 28, 2022.
Termination of this current emergency does not preclude the chances of new variants of
concern emerging, and thus reverting our municipality back into a pandemic response and
possible new emergency declaration. It does, however, signal our ability to move towards
This after-action review was the final step prior to demobilizing the current EOC structure.
Impacts:
As of November 2, 2022 the Region of Waterloo has seen 52,596 cases of COVID-19,
which equates to roughly 8% of the population contracting the virus. These numbers are
underestimated, however, due to a change in testing and reporting protocols. There have
been 484 deaths in the Region due to the virus.
Currently the active Regional caseload sits at 345 people, with 63 patients in hospital, 7 of
which are in Intensive Care Units.
In addition to citizen health, the pandemic has also had negative effects on businesses
and employees in certain sectors throughout the Region due to multiple lock-downs during
the peaks of various waves and stringent mandates such as masking and vaccination
policies. Unemployment rates spiked early in the pandemic but have since leveled off.
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Reflections:
provide input on what worked well, what were the challenges, and what could be improved
going forward. Responses were summarized and reviewed by the Internal Auditor, CEMC
and two alternate A sample of those reflections is included below.
Strengths:
Activation and Notification Process
Very quick mobilization of EOCMT and sections prior to the WHO declaration
Organizational Structure
Utilizing the IMS structure which staff were familiar with from previous training was
comforting and provided a solid foundation for decision making
It also ensured key areas were covered off (continuity of operations, future planning
and monitoring of provincial directives/regulations, logistics and HR directives,
health and safety, and ensuring we had financial support and monitoring)
Decision Making
Strong leadership and direction coming from EOCMT
Collaborative decision making and communication across the region to bring a
consistent approach to citizens across local municipalities
Advocacy of our political leaders to the province to have key areas altered to help
expedite our response and support of local businesses and citizens
Facility
Willingness and ability to allow office workers to work from home and have flexible
hours
Virtual meetings with Council and CLT allowed regular business and decision
making to continue
Situational Awareness and Information Sharing
Information flow between sections and EOCMT (up and down) was effective
Staff bulletins were well received by those staff with email access (concise with
links to further detailed information)
Having Communication staff sit on each section and EOCMT helped with
streamlining internal and external messaging
Townhalls were an efficient and appreciated method of reaching staff and allowing
real time questions to be answered directly by leadership
Public Alerting and Orders
Communication to the public to educate them on how we are keeping our staff safe
and continuing to deliver service to them
Planning
Recovery documents set a solid foundation for guidance and phased recovery
Good partnerships with local and regional groups. Waterloo Regional CEMCs
worked well together as did the regional CAOs
Continuity of Operations
Collaboration within and across teams to set up new processes in a timely way
again in a safe manner; staff excelled at problem solving
Resource & Financial Management
Very fast response by TIS staff to get staff set up to work from home (Teams,
laptops, VPN, Sharepoint)
Funding supports and resources from other levels of government (Safe Restart)
Health and Safety
Quick implementation of new procedures, policies, and PPE to keep staff safe in
the field
Minimal transmission in the workplace
Challenges:
Organizational Structure
Lack of focus and clear delineation of which tasks fell to each EOC section;
sometimes there was duplication of work or transfer of issues between sections
IMS hierarchy structure had challenges related to sharing decisions made by other
sections and cascading the information quickly across sections
Decision Making
Periods of ambiguity around masking were tough for staff when customers were
polarized and staff had no ability to enforce
Due to the length of the pandemic, working within the IMS structure for decision
making started to blur the lines between what is an operational decision and what is
a pandemic decision.
Decision making was not linear made decisions to advance and then retreated;
hard to track where we landed with each decision given the pace of changes
Facility
Current configurations of workstations in some areas did not allow for 2 metres
physical distancing, requiring staff to alternate days in the office
Having no access to washrooms for front-line outside staff was an issue
Staff having to take lunch breaks outside gave the impression to the public that staff
were not working / being lazy, leading to complaints from the public
Staffing
HR was severely understaffed considering the bulk of the policies, procedures and
health tracking fell to them, yet no additional resources were added
Workload for Communications staff was a challenge, particularly the late Friday
afternoon announcements from the province
Public Health not able to provide interpretation on regulations; require internal
support or external counsel for this topic
Situational Awareness and Information Sharing
Regional partners not able to meet our pace for coordinated communications; often
waiting on others before sending out
Information overload too much communicated at once and changes frequently;
difficult to remember what the current procedure is
Different messaging for the public vs. staff was a challenge (i.e., when mandates
differed)
Getting information to staff not on email or in the office was challenging
Public Alerting and Orders
the same time as they did and expected immediate response
Volume of information coming from regulatory bodies, often late Friday afternoons,
with conflicting or unclear direction; forced to react to decisions outside of our
control
Provincial directives / regulations were confusing and hard to decipher
Continuity of Operations
Volume of pandemic work was overwhelming, meaning other core work was put on
pause; some areas continued with corporate projects and expected support from
those with pandemic responsibilities which was unrealistic
Payment options for the public fell short citizens could access services online but
had to come in person to pay or send a cheque
save money or continue providing
service, e.g.,determining grass cutting was not a critical service, releasing all staff,
and then being told it was now a critical service
Many staff taking on dual roles trying to manage the pandemic and perform their
regular work; culture and some work suffered as a result
Resources Management
Putting people on and off leave due to shut-downs was time consuming and
challenging
Moving from double or quad vehicle occupancy to single occupancy put a strain on
resources and was bad optics as more vehicles on the job site
Dispatch radios did not work outside of Kitchener so dispatchers could not work
from home; took about 1 year to get the ability for dispatch staff to take calls from
home.
Health and Safety
service calls)
Excessive workload and condensed timelines has led to burnout and making it
difficult to find a work-life balance
Extreme stress for some in leadership roles who were guiding staff with little
knowledge or training themselves; stress related to the pandemic; stress related to
increased workload
Recommendations:
There were many ideas for improvement provided by staff and management during this
review to address the challenges noted above. While all of the ideas for improvement will
be considered and evaluated, several key actions are recommended and are being
reviewed by senior management. These fall into two categories:
Њ͵ Preparedness actions which should be taken now to prepare for the next large
scale emergency or pandemic; and
Ћ͵ Response and recovery actions which should be implemented during the next
emergency.
The actions will be reviewed and prioritized by the City in order to mitigate risk and
improve the overall emergency management program.
STRATEGIC PLAN ALIGNMENT:
This report supports the delivery of core services.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
Capital Budget The recommendation has no impact on the Capital Budget.
Operating Budget The recommendation has no impact on the Operating Budget.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
INFORM
the council / committee meeting.
PREVIOUS REPORTS/AUTHORITIES:
CAO-2022-008: 2022 Internal Audit Work Plan
APPROVED BY: Dan Chapman, CAO
ATTACHMENTS: none
CAO-2022-500
4TH QUARTER AUDIT STATUS
REPORT
Summary
Completed:
Physical Inventory count verification
Market Alcohol -controls
Pandemic after action review
In progress:
Inventory status update
Parking and Mileage compliance
Technology Field Assets physical inventory
Underground Locate Service org structure / capacity
Training documentation review
STORES PHYSICAL INVENTORY
Objectives
Physical Inventory (done by staff):
Count all inventory to ensure financial records
match physical inventory on hand
Count Verification (done by Internal Audit):
To count a sample of inventory to verify that
staff counts are accurate
Methodology
Sheet-to-floor counts
Top 25 total values
Top 25 unit values
Floor-to-sheet counts
20 random parts
Verified 22% of the total inventory value
Findings
6 variances found
i.e. Internal audit counts did not match financial
records
Represent 9% of sample
Resulted in a write-up of $5,621
Low number and value of variances found
during count verification (0.2% of total
inventory on hand)
Total Adjustments
$576K Write-down
Controllable Stock
Uncontrollable Stock
$83K write-up
$659K write-down
Year202020212022
Total write-$65K($141K)($576K)
up (down)
Uncontrollable Inventory
Located outside, no direct control by Stores
Typically see large write-downs in aggregates
Two new large write-downs in 2022:
GeomeltBrine $120K
Never counted before; multiple years of variance
Usage underestimated
Road Salt $504K
Past estimates incorrect; multiple years of
variance
Charged directly to Winter Maintenance budget
rather than being written down
Actions
Regular cycle counts for high moving parts
Aggregates:
Some single user aggregates removed from inventory and
charged directly to projects
Signage, training, and instructions to estimate quantities of
other aggregates
Geomelt:
Remove from inventory
Expense immediately
Road Salt:
Develop more accurate method of estimating volume
Process as an adjustment for consistency
Conclusion
Total write-downs are 3.6% of purchases,
slightly over the 2.5% industry benchmark
Adjustments, excluding salt and brine, are
small in value and expected
Actions are in progress or planned to address
issues
Inventory process is in control
MARKET -ALCOHOL
Market -Alcohol
Audit Objective:
To review / confirm controls are in place to
protect alcohol from theft by staff or
customers.
Methodology
Documentation of process
Tour of Market kitchen and storage areas
Physical inventory count
Identification of existing or missing controls points
Findings
2013 recommended process not in use
Staff tracking event usage but not ongoing
inventory or reconciliation of purchases
Work in process to build locked storage area
Investigating point of sale system for event
sales
Opportunity for theft by staff or customers
Recommendations
Confirm, track and reconcile incoming
purchases of alcohol
Event day tracking and reconciliation of
opening balances, uses during the event,
closing balance, and sales/deposits
Periodic inventory counts
PANDEMIC AFTER-ACTION REVIEW
After-Action Review Purpose
Opportunity to identify and strengthen
successful processes
Reflect on lessons learned to make
improvements, provide better resource
allocation, and build further connections with
partner agencies
Timeline
Mar. 25/20 ROW
Jan 2020
Mar.11/20
Mar.25/22 ROW July 5/22
& municipalities
Surveillance &
ROW Activates
& municipalities Kitchener EOC
declare
preparation
RPCG
lift emergencies
demobilized
emergencies
March 6/20Mar.1/22May 28/22
Mar.17/20
Kitchener Provinces lifts Kitchener lifts
Ontario declares
Activated EOChealth restrictionshealth restrictions
emergency
for staff
Kitchener Actions Taken
Safety of staff: PPE, distancing, training, active
daily screening, vaccine policy,
Safety of public: limited access or capacity,
cancellation of programs, masking, screening,
contact tracing, online services
General safety: deep cleaning, improved
ventilation
Strengths
Strong leadership and direction
Collaboration across the Region
Continuity of operations ability to quickly
transition to online services and programs
Focus on health and safety minimal
transmission in the workplace
Challenges
Pace of change and reaction to Provincial
directives
Understaffed, particularly in HR
Staff burnout and extreme stress
Facility limitations washrooms, physical
distance
Recommendations
Many ideas gathered from staff to address
challenges
Sorted into two categories:
Preparedness actions
Response and recovery actions
Actions will be reviewed and prioritized in
order to mitigate risk and improve the
emergency management program