Item - 2024.AU4.2

The Audit Committee recommends that:

1. City Council receive the report (February 8, 2024) from the Auditor General for information.

Tara Anderson, Auditor General, and Elaine Au, Assistant Auditor General, gave a presentation on Auditor General's 2023 Annual Report on the Fraud and Waste Hotline.

This report represents the 2023 annual report on fraud, waste and wrongdoing at the City including the activities of the Fraud and Waste Hotline Program (the Hotline Program). It highlights the complaints that have been communicated to the Auditor

General’s Office. It does not represent an overall picture of fraud or other wrongdoing across the City.

In 2023, 1,054 complaints comprised of approximately 1,450 allegations were received by the Auditor General’s Office, the highest in a year since the launch of the Hotline Program and similar to the number of complaints (1,032) received last year.

The Hotline Program has helped to reduce losses and resulted in the protection of City assets. The actual and potential losses from complaints received from 2019 to 2023 are $27.7 million (actual losses) plus $1.0 million (potential losses) had the fraud not been detected. Additional benefits that are not quantifiable include:

- the deterrence of fraud or wrongdoing

- strengthened internal controls

- improvements in policies and procedures

- increased operational efficiencies

- the ability to use complaint data to identify trends, address risks, make action-oriented recommendations to management, and inform our Audit Work Plan.