Poor communication driving up Pan Am Games security cost, auditor warns

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Ontario's Auditor-General says if Pan Am Games officials were more organized and communicated better with partners, the province could have saved money on the cost of security.

With the Games just nine months away, Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk said the organizing committee, TO2015, is behind schedule with retaining some security services, including those for fields of play. Given that these contracts have not yet been awarded, Ms. Lysyk says there is a risk of the cost of the Games escalating further.

"We do believe that TO2015 missed an opportunity to reduce their costs and mitigate risk by not procuring their private security earlier," Ms. Lysyk said.

This revelation was "the most troubling element" of a report on Pan Am Games security that Ms. Lysyk released Wednesday morning, said NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh.

"We've seen overall the way they've managed security, the way they've overestimated, improperly estimated. They're just dropping the ball left, right and centre," Mr. Singh said of organizers.

In her report, Ms. Lysyk said clear communication between the various parties organizing security for the Games has been lacking. In one case she cited, TO2015 transferred several security responsibilities to the Ontario Provincial Police and Integrated Security Unit without first consulting them.

Ms. Lysyk's report comes in response to a request by the NDP and the standing committee on public accounts in April to investigate the awarding of an $81-million private security contract to Contemporary Security Canada, the subsidiary of an American firm. An Ontario firm bid $14-million less for the contract.

In Wednesday's report, Ms. Lysyk said the processes used were "fair and transparent."

Culture Minister Michael Coteau welcomed the results of the auditor's report based on that finding. "Our government has made these the most transparent Games ever," he said in a statement. "We do not put a price on keeping people safe. We will be efficient but we will not compromise the safety of Ontarians."

While organizers initially said security costs would be $121.9-million for the Games, they have since adjusted their estimate to $247.4-million.

Mr. Coteau has said costs could increase even further given that the "threat level" would not be known until the time of the event.

While Ms. Lysyk said the awarding of the contract to CSC followed protocol, the government originally budgeted only $39-million for those services, half the actual cost of the contract. Ms. Lysyk said this is because they had really only budgeted for security personnel, not the cost of planning security. The cost of security management is $47-million.

"In our view, the ministry's decision to submit the lower rates and budget for the private security procurement in February, 2013 was not realistic given financial experiences from past Games and lessons learned elsewhere on project management," Ms. Lysyk said in her report.

As recently as October, organizers pegged the cost of asset protection services at $2.2-million based on estimates that the hourly cost of security would only be $30. Yet in the contract organizers signed earlier this year with Contemporary Security Canada, hourly rates were significantly higher: $39 to $60 per hour.

"If this was a private company and they failed to do the intelligence work that was necessary or do the groundwork that needed to be done, that individual would be fired in the private sector. Yet no one ever seems to be accountable in this Liberal government," said MPP Todd Smith, the Progressive Conservative critic for the Pan Am Games.