Ottawa police need to budget better, auditor general says

Ottawa auditor general Nathalie Gougeon Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

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Project management at the Ottawa Police Service falls short in budgeting, reporting and oversight, a new auditor general report finds.

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Auditor general Nathalie Gougeon released an OPS project management audit to provide “reasonable assurance” that OPS has appropriate policies in place. However, a testing of five strategic projects revealed gaps across project life cycles.

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“Our testing confirmed inconsistencies in the evaluation of resources needed to execute projects,” the report said. “In addition, projects have not consistently had formal, approved budgets.”

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Addressing budget inconsistencies, the audit stated reporting must be improved to “ensure complete and accurate status reporting of strategic projects.”

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The audit noted various examples of project status reports to oversight bodies that lacked in detail or included inaccurate information, including that of the OPS body-worn cameras.

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“Phase 1 of the Body-Worn Camera project did not identify any key risks or issues related to project costing on the project dashboard in late 2025,” the report said. “However, the audit noted that the cost to acquire the required equipment increased by more than 25 per cent following the receipt of a revised quote from the vendor.”

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“This cost escalation could reasonably have been identified and reported as a risk on the dashboard but was not reflected.”

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The auditor wrote that monitoring budgets was crucial for proper oversight of the police service.

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“Effective project monitoring and reporting is critical to OPS to provide governance bodies with ongoing assurance that projects remain on track, aligned with strategic objectives, and capable of delivering intended outcomes.”

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For the cameras, the audit also pointed out issues surrounding semi-annual project updates received by the Ottawa Police Service Board, which have historically failed to include reporting on key metrics.

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While the audit said this problem has improved since December when “financials accompanied the qualitative reporting to the Board,” inaccuracies were found in the most recent update to the OPSB, including inaccurate project statuses and budgets.

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“Phase 1 of the Body-Worn Camera project indicated a budget of $1 million, however the approved budget for the project is $456,788,” the report read.

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Additionally, exemplifying the issues behind the lack of a consistent, established formalized budget for strategic projects, the auditor general noted the District Revitalization Project (DRP), which is meant to “transform” the OPS’ deployment model by “transitioning from a largely centralized structure to a district-based policing model.”