Auditor General finds fire safety code deficiencies in city-owned buildings
Thestar.com
July 6, 2018
Gilbert Ngabo
Toronto’s Auditor General has found fire safety code deficiencies in various city-owned buildings, calling out a contractor’s fraudulent practices and taking city authorities to task about slippage in inspection services.
A report released last week cites 19 city facilities at which these deficiencies were discovered, including Union Station, City Hall, Old City Hall, Exhibition Place, Toronto Zoo, Casa Loma and Metro Hall.
City of Toronto auditor general Beverly Romeo-Beehler: “One of the most important things from the report is that the building owner (the city) must be aware that they are responsible for compliance with the Ontario Fire Code, no matter who carries out the inspections.”
The report says a company known as York Fire Protection has been hired by the city to perform life safety inspections at several city-owned buildings for many years.
Over the years, the company, headed by one Rauf Ahmad, also known as Rauf Arain, signed contracts totalling more than $395,000 and $550,000, according to the report.
The report says Ahmad confirmed, after intense questioning under oath, that he uses at least five other identities associated with the company, including names such as David Williams, Lacette Daniels, Serena Crawford, Jason Peters and Steve Sailings.
The company, which the report says also operates under other names, such as Advance Fire Control and Advanced Detection Technologies Corp., has done similar work for private buildings in Toronto and other municipalities.
The Auditor General’s investigation, which covers the period of 2010-2017, also found the contractor used forged signatures of their staff, used false identities and operated multiple companies all linked to the same name.
“The good news from this report is that it’s a fixable problem. All of the actions I think the city should take are listed in the report as the recommendations,” said Auditor General Beverly Romeo-Beehler in an email to The Star.
“One of the most important things from the report is that the building owner (the city) must be aware that they are responsible for compliance with the Ontario Fire Code, no matter who carries out the inspections.”
In the report, the Auditor General underlines a consistent lack of documentation as proof of fire inspection work. When she asked the city’s Facilities Management department to investigate the matter, they came back and reported finding “no issues.”
But the Auditor General could not find inspection reports to justify payments to the contractor. Toronto Fire Services also encountered similar problems while investigating compliance with the Ontario Fire Code, the report adds.
The report concludes that the contractor deliberately misled the city for many years, and not seeing red flags is a symptom of larger issues.
“The indifference this investigation encountered shows there is an urgent need to remind Facilities Management staff what they are accountable for,” reads the report in part.
“A culture shift to accountability, safety first, and compliance with the Fire Code is needed.”
As a result of the Auditor General’s investigation, the Toronto Fire Services have laid a total of 58 Ontario Fire Code charges. Both Ahmad and the companies attached to his name are cited in the charges, according to the report.
The Star repeatedly attempted to contact York Fire Protection, but could not reach anyone at the company. Attempts to reach Ahmad personally were unsuccessful by press time.
City spokesperson Deborah Blackstone said the city is committed to ensuring safety at all its buildings, and staff already started acting on the recommendations from the Auditor General’s report.
“Toronto Fire Services did not discover any issues that constituted an immediate threat to life in any of the City buildings that they have inspected,” she said.
In a statement released Friday and addressed to the city’s audit commitee, Mayor John Tory expressed disappointment at the report’s findings.
He said the investigation was “important because it chronicles an absolute failure to conduct proper due diligence when hiring life safety inspection vendors for City buildings.”
Calling the lack of cooperation between staff and the Auditor General’s investigation “a disgrace,” Tory said he’s instructed senior city staff to thoroughly review the report and consider disciplinary actions “including dismissal.”
“Any time there is concern of wrongdoing related to public money, it must be reported to the Auditor General. I find it inconceivable that this was not done in this case and I fully expect staff to ensure this does not happen again,” he wrote.
Deputy mayor and chair of the city’s audit committee Stephen Holyday said it is concerning that the Auditor General found indifference on this file, and that it took so long to get these issues exposed and dealt with.
“There appears to be a breakdown in the diligence of the management at the city,” he said.
“At best, perhaps we have lost money on this or the city has not complied with the law, but, at worst, perhaps people could have been put at risk of safety.”
The task at hand now, he said, is to go back and look at all the city buildings for any gaps or missing documentation about safety inspections.
Holyday expects disciplinary action to be taken against staff members that had accountability in the process.
“Certainly as an organization, we should not be doing business with that company or that person any longer,” he said about the contractor.
Nick Di Donato, president and CEO of Liberty Entertainment Group, the company that took over the management of Casa Loma, one of the buildings cited in the report, said the contractor in question worked at the castle prior to 2014.
“When we took possession of the property we completed all safety inspections and upgraded all systems with a new contractor that we use,” he said.
“All systems have been verified by Fire Department and there are no issues or reasons for concern at Casa Loma. Life safety is paramount at our facility.”
