In Over Their Head
Filed Under: Local
Ever the hear the expression “government has no business being in business”? According to an auditor’s report the City of Winnipeg had lost about $50 million as of the end of 2004 due to poorly run city owned/operated ventures called SOAs or special operating agencies.
It isn’t just photo-radar that’s failing city taxpayers. A new investigation says city hall’s business-style agencies are bleeding tens of millions of dollars from the public purse.The city’s special operating agencies (SOAs) - managing services from gravel to golf courses - are failing to bring in sufficient revenue after being organized in a shoddy manner, an auditor charges.
A confidential internal city hall probe has found that the relatively new SOAs for a gravel pit, municipal golf courses, the city’s dog pound and vehicle fleet are generally falling millions of dollars short of their financial goals and had cost the city roughly $50 million through to the end of 2004.
The audit’s report obtained by the Sun states senior city managers “failed to adequately monitor the SOAs … or respond on a timely basis to significant issues.”
Incompetence on the part of city managers? Heaven forbid.
2 Comments so far. Click here to join the discussion!
gfroese
As I understand it, the photo-radar isn’t costing the city money, it’s just making less than they initially proposed it would. Saying that it is bleeding money from the city is mis-leading.
Feb 27th, 2006
Len Kutchma
I’m not talking about photo-radar. The media has been concentrating on it but I intentionally did not mention it because I agree with you. I’m referring to the various city-run ventures like gravel pits, golf courses etc.
Feb 27th, 2006
Reply to “In Over Their Head”
Please note: Comment moderation is in effect. It may take some time for your comment to appear. There is no need to resubmit it.
Off-topic comments, personal attacks, obvious spam and support requests will likely not make it out of moderation. This site does not necessarily endorse or agree with comments left here.