The Editor,
Re. "Already measures to monitor cities" (Letters, The Tri-City News, Sept. 14).
I am not convinced that Mayor Greg Moore and Port Coquitlam city council are sincere about openness to taxpayers and sufficient auditing of the city finances. External auditing of the city's finances is done by an accredited firm assigned and paid by city, therefore it is not independent of city.
An outside auditor cannot be assigned and paid by institution that has to be audited. The audit firm will not forgo the lucrative annual contract and will not do anything that will jeopardize its future business. No objective conclusions that city brass does not like will be issued.
Judging from city managerial staff's extremely high remuneration (25 positions with annual salary over $100,000), city council's self-approved substantive raises and mounting municipal tax increases (three to four times within eight years), the truly independent audit is absolutely necessary.
At least the auditor must not be assigned by the city but every year by completely independent institution. Only then can we learn what is wrong and what changes has to be made to stop rampant municipal expenditures.
Henryk Kolny, Port Coquitlam
