Financial Records 2016: Notes

Much has changed since the Dufferin Grove programs were run collaboratively between CELOS and onsite recreation staff.

This Notes page is a site for posting some of the problems with the city's centralized money management of Dufferin Grove Park.

Ward 18 book-keeping

At the second "Community Resource Group" (CGR) meeting about the possible rebuilding of the park clubhouse, ovens, gardens, etc., recreation manager Sue Bartleman said that one good thing about central PFR management having taken back the running of the park is that "now we know where the money goes."

But in fact the park book-keeping is a bit of a shambles.

This is a shame, since in the last 6 years the city paid more that $70 million for a new IT system called FPARS (purchased from the multinational software corporation SAP SE). It was meant to...

But those goals can only be met if the data entry is reliable, and in Ward 18, it's not. Read more

Pcard documentation

In 2012, PFR management converted the Dufferin Grove programs from being locally run to being reintegrated with the way things are done everywhere else. Front-line staff at Dufferin Grove could no longer buy the program supplies directly -- they had to be accompanied by an off-site full time staff who had the use of a city credit card, so that all purchases would be documented at the moment of sale, instead of with paper receipts. The extra layer of staff meant that staffing costs went up, but the documentation could be confusing. Dufferin Grove Park has four "cost centres" for tracking expenses, but their use is not consistent, and sometimes purchases for other parks are listed under Dufferin Grove: correspondence

Freedom of Information request 2017-00514

Information about all food contractors that had contracts with the City to supply food for Ward 18 park programs from 2011 to the present including the dollar amounts spent for each of these contracts and the parks programs they went to.

DPO (Departmental Purchase Orders) attributed to Dufferin Grove Park: read more

food income minus grocery costs at Dufferin Grove Park

The city’s “SAP” report shows that the food income is down while food expenses are going up. This graph shows that in the last year of the staff/CELOS partnership, after the groceries to make all the park food were paid for, there was $95,300 left over to pay the cooks (report from the Quickbooks accounting system). The next year city management centralized food purchasing and took over the food-related programs. The city auditor had warned that the more centralized food purchasing is, the more it costs. And indeed, the groceries cost went way up. In 2015 the groceries/food supplies for Dufferin Grove cost almost as much as the income from food sales, and in 2016 the supplies actually cost more than the income from selling the food. That means there was nothing left over to pay the cooks who had prepared the food.

The cooking-staff wages are paid, of course – but through the operating budget, which is paid for by taxes. So in a neighbourhood where most house prices begin at $1 million, Dufferin Grove Park food is now significantly subsidized. Not a viable “business plan” over the long term!

Of course, it could be that we’ve misunderstood the city’s reporting (again obtained through Freedom of Information). We sent our numbers to the finance manager, asking for corrections, if any. But she didn’t answer.