Recreation program planning could be improved: HRM auditor general

Halifax City Hall on Argyle Street in Halifax is pictured on Oct. 29, 2024. (CTV Atlantic/Joel LeBlanc)

A review of Halifax Regional Municipality’s (HRM) recreation program planning was released Tuesday by Auditor General Andrew Atherton.

The report found the municipality’s planning requires some improvements.

“The audit found that while there are reasonable strategic objectives for recreation planning, there was limited connection to day-to-day recreation planning. The audit also found issues with monitoring and evaluation of recreation programming,” a release from the auditor general reads.

The report includes five recommendations for HRM management, which the municipality has agreed to implement.

“Recreation programming is planned at the community level, which is fine in many ways, but it is also done so with little attention paid to corporate objectives and with limited management oversight. There was a lack of action plans for achieving the objectives and no formal monitoring and evaluation of programming,” Atherton said.

A follow-up report on 2021 audits was also released on Tuesday.

Atherton said HRM has, to date, implemented 75 per cent of recommendations for two 2021 audits, which were the Transit Technology Project Management and Management of Accounts Payable.

“In 2021, we recommended HRM come up with some accounts payable KPIs and performance targets. For transit, we recommended projects have reasonable and documented estimates and assumptions. These recommendations relate to relatively basic management concepts and actions should be taken to address them,” the auditor general said.

Both reports are available on the auditor general’s website.

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