Halifax Regional Municipality Auditor General Larry Munroe says he is ‘disappointed’ with the city paying out 46 per cent more in overtime this year than it did four years ago.
“We had hoped that we would make more progress on this,” said Munroe.
In a new report, Munroe says the municipality has overspent its overtime budget by $14.9 million in the last four years.
“Dealing with overtime, it's almost impossible to get it precisely right. It's there, it's a fact of life. But the variations that we see we think are too large,” said Munroe.
Ninety-four per cent of overtime happens in police, fire services, public works and Metro Transit – departments affected by last year's difficult winter.
Five years after the auditor general's original report on overtime was given to the municipality, only three of 14 recommendations have been implemented.
Ten have been reissued in the latest report.
Key among them is developing accurate budgets, but Halifax's outgoing CAO Richard Butts thinks the municipality has a good handle on it.
“The overtime budget is overspent, the straight-time budget is underspent,” said Butts. “So in each and every year Larry measured, we're underspent in wages.”
Councillor Gloria McCluskey says health and safety should be a major concern
“I mean, he doesn't mind. I mind. I feel embarrassed when I get a report like this,” said McCluskey.
Halfway through this fiscal year, fire services have overspent its annual budget by 154 per cent, and police by 86 per cent.
One fire employee worked 1,400 overtime hours last year, amounting to an extra 175 eight-hour work days.
“We're saying ask for a dialogue around it and get some sense of whether we're doing all the right things, we need to be an employer of choice,” said Munroe.
The report says much of the overtime happens because employees are covering sick leave or vacation time.
City management says a new agreement with fire services should help mitigate that issue.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie.
