Contractor Bus Maintenance Safety Faulty: AG

09/13/2024

This is an except from the auditor general’s report on faulty OC Transpo bus maintenance to be presented to audit committee on Sept. 20:

Through the fraud and waste hotline, multiple allegations concerning vendors failing to properly complete safety checks and other maintenance work were flagged.

The auditor general’s office reviewed the individual cases, including case notes on subsequent work orders in M5. We found specific instances of insufficient vendor work which could have posed a safety risk to the public while the bus was in service and resulted in inefficient use of resources due to rework done by in-house staff and reduced fleet availability for service.

Through interviews and document review, we found there was no defined or formalized quality assurance process in place to guide inspections of outsourced work before a bus is put into service. While we have been informed that a re-examination could be performed once the bus is received back from a vendor, this is not standardized and is based on the Vendor Coordinator’s professional judgment.

It often falls to the OC Transpo licensed mechanics to identify issues related to vendor work after the bus has been put in service (i.e., when it returns to the garage for routine maintenance repairs or when mechanical defects are identified during service).

Without mitigating quality assurance processes, issues related to vendor work increases the risk to public safety and the City’s exposure to liability.