Alberta failing to properly track highway maintenance: auditor general

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Alberta is falling short of keeping track of whether or not highway maintenance is being done properly, according to a report by the province’s auditor general.

On Monday, the Office of the Auditor General of Alberta tabled a report outlining the work done by the department of Transportation and Economic Corridors regarding highway maintenance. The report found the department approved all extra work and did not always comply with the sole-sourcing policy and did not always reduce payment for materials that did not meet their standards.

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Brandon Ireland, the assistant auditor general who worked on the report, said the department needs to make improvements to their processes around reporting they receive from contractors on the work they perform and public feedback being used to monitor contract performance.

“The amount of roads and highways in the province is significant,” Ireland said.

“We’re investing a significant amount of dollars in public funds to keep the roads in good driving condition.”

The department manages 64,000 kilometres of highways across the province. It contracts out $320 million per year to 18 contractors — seven were added in 2024 to clear snow, patch potholes and pavement, and provide routine inspections.

According to the report, more than a third of contracts deal with winter maintenance, 24 per cent deal with highway maintenance work, 21 per cent deal with traffic control, and the remainder deal with routine maintenance and right of way.

No evidence or adequate reporting

The province has two types of contracts: unit-rate based (where contractors audit their work and provide reports to the province) and performance based (where the department will initiate, monitor, and inspect contracts before paying).

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“(The department) receives monthly reporting from the contractors, but this reporting does not always demonstrate how contract requirements are being met for performance-based activities,” the report said.

The report laid out two snow-clearing examples, and in one instance, the contractor’s audit division did not audit all service levels they were supposed to and only reported accumulation readings two hours before the snowfall ended.

Contracts have certain specifications for materials like salt for ice control and paint for highway lines, and if they do not meet those specifications, payments are reduced. The report said in six out of eight work orders for salt and ice control materials worth $1.3 million, the department could not tell if any of the materials passed or failed the quality control tests and made no payment adjustments.

Department regional staff must inspect completed work before paying for it, however, in 20 of 23 work orders, staff said they “visually inspected” the work, but results were not documented.

Public feedback was received for contractor performance, however, regional staff said they did not always track or document it. The report noted some contracts responded to public feedback while others did not always use public feedback to monitor contractor performance despite it being necessary.

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In a statement to Postmedia, Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshan said they have accepted the recommendations and he has instructed his department to increase reporting documentation related to monitoring highway maintenance contracts.

“Transportation and Economic Corridors has continued to learn from previous versions of the highway maintenance specifications and continues to incorporate lessons learned as new versions of the specifications are developed and implemented,” Dreeshan said.

Not always complying with sole-sourcing policy

According to the report from 2021 to 2023, the department paid $54 million per year to highway maintenance contractors for extra work, such as unplanned culvert repair and paving in surface work.

The province’s sole-sourcing policy requires construction services of $100,000 or more to be competitively bid with some exceptions. The auditor general examined 10 work orders from contractors of extra work and found nine were over $100,000. In four of the cases, the department did not document where the work was labelled as extra instead of tendering a new contract.

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Lorne Dach, Alberta NDP transportation critic, said it was concerning to see sole contracts awarded to companies with existing contracts.

“What the auditor general said was that the reporting wasn’t done correctly and that millions of dollars of Alberta taxpayer money was supposedly spent on highway maintenance and snow clearing, but there’s no record of what actually was done,” Dach said.

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@kccindytran

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