Brampton's Audit Committee Approves 2025 Findings with Control Improvements Planned

Brampton's Audit Committee received KPMG's 2025 audit findings and was told the year-end audit would result in "a clean audit," pending council approval. The committee also reviewed internal audit reports on public works, engineering, and transit facilities maintenance that identified procurement breaches, weak invoice controls, incomplete work-order tracking, and duplicate payments. Members approved the audit recommendations and added follow-up directions on invoice standards and recurring maintenance spending, with reports back due in September 2026 and Q1 2027.

Topics Discussed

1. 2025 AUDIT FINDINGS

KPMG presented its audit findings for the year ended Dec. 31, 2025. Maria from KPMG told the committee, "Overall it was a clean audit." The City Auditor similarly said, "There were no corrected or uncorrected audit misstatements identified this year for the main city or the smaller entities… So we will be issuing a clean audit opinion this year pending council approval of course."

The report said the audit was substantially complete, with final steps including council approval of the financial statements and completion of subsequent-event review procedures.

2. TAX RECEIVABLES AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Committee members questioned the city's tax receivables during discussion of the audited financial statements. Councillor Gurpartap Singh Toor asked about the $201 million in tax receivables and its percentage of overall tax received. Staff said the $201 million represented roughly 10 per cent of total tax billing.

The committee also discussed liabilities and reserves as part of its review of the 2025 consolidated financial statements before approving them.

3. PUBLIC WORKS AND ENGINEERING FACILITIES MAINTENANCE AUDIT

The internal audit of public works and engineering facilities maintenance identified procurement and payment control problems. Internal Audit reported: "The highest rated finding relates to procurement controls over vendor performed demand maintenance. First, we identified nine vendors, each with cumulative spending above the $25,000 procurement threshold without contract, purchase orders, or documented procurement exceptions. Second, we identified $1.72 million in spending across 12 vendors that was processed outside established purchase orders."

The audit also found duplicate invoice issues. Internal Audit said, "10 duplicate invoice approvals were identified. Seven of these were detected by accounts payable before payment was processed and three duplicate payments totaling $4,422 were not detected and were paid twice."

Committee members pressed staff on why this happened. Councillor Navjit Kaur Brar said, "the underlining issue is two problems. One, we're not following the SOPs for what they should be doing. And two is we're exceeding the amount that is given for those quick fixes. These are items that should be going out for procurement."

Councillor Santos explained the invoice approval process: "When you're proving invoice, you're supposed to look at what is the invoice image and what is the number that's being scanned… But if you're approving invoices without reading the images then it could possibly be paid twice."

4. TRANSIT FACILITIES MAINTENANCE AUDIT

The committee then reviewed the transit facilities maintenance audit, which covered Jan. 1, 2023 to Dec. 31, 2025. The audit found similar issues with procurement, invoice controls, documentation, and maintenance tracking.

Internal Audit reported that "12 vendors exceeded the $25,000 purchasing bylaw threshold without purchase orders or formal procurement approval with total spending of 1.067 million." It also found gaps in maintenance oversight and record-keeping.

Dennis Keenan said, "Implementing city works was an important step toward automating maintenance, operation, and improving oversight. However, the system is still in transition and does not yet provide complete visibility over maintenance activity." Ryan Booth, director of transit operations and maintenance, said, "Implementing the recommendations will strengthen the control framework, improve operational consistency, enhance internal controls, and increase the compliance, oversight, and accountability of maintenance operations."

5. PURCHASING CONTROLS AND CITY WORKS

A recurring theme in both audits was decentralized purchasing and incomplete use of the City Works maintenance system. Councillor Rowena Santos identified "a central theme" across the audits: "even though we do have a central procurement team… it seems like… we're really centralizing the procurement process." She asked whether staff had considered centralizing approvals "so that we have common controls."

Staff said City Works, introduced in February 2025 for facilities operations and maintenance, was still not being used consistently. Staff noted that "up to now the system has not been fully utilized because sometimes… people have been used to just call or send email to the team… for the repair work required."

Raj said management accepted the findings: "management agrees with the recommendations related to city works and recognizes there is an opportunity for us to improve how maintenance activities are tracked, monitored, and reported." He added, "All actions are targeted to be completed by Q1 of 2027."

Motions

Approved: - Internal Audit Work Plan Status Update for Q2 2026 (File 6.4) - 2025 Audit Findings Report (File 5.1) received after presentation and discussion - Public Works and Engineering Facilities Maintenance Audit for 2026 (File 6.1) received and recommendations approved - Transit Facilities Maintenance Audit (File 6.2) received and recommendations approved unanimously - 2025 Audit Consolidated Financial Statements (File 7.1) approved - Motion requiring a standardized city invoice template as a mandatory condition of payment for facility maintenance services; follow-up report due Sept. 21, 2026 - Motion directing Brampton Transit's general manager to review recurring maintenance spending, including portable toilet rentals and similar services; follow-up report due Sept. 21, 2026

Held / Other: - Corporate Ethics Hotline Quarterly Report Q2 2026 (File 6.3) held - Detailed City Works discussion continued in closed session under the Municipal Act

Attendees

• Councillor Michael Palleschi
• Councillor Navjit Kaur Brar
• Councillor Patrick Brown
• Councillor Gurpartap Singh Toor
• Councillor Rowena Santos
• Dennis Keenan
• Other Audit Committee members were present in person or online.