The 2024 Operating Budget request of $7.991 million is a $0.373 million (or 4.9 per cent) increase from the Approved Adjusted 2023 Operating Budget for the Auditor General’s Office. The Office is lean relative to the size and complexity of Toronto’s government. The Office budget as a percentage of the municipal operating budget (0.05% of the City’s 2023 budget), is also among the lowest of major municipalities across Canada, as well as those of a number of municipalities in the United States.
The budget pressure largely arises from:
- an increase in salaries and benefits by $0.557 million, mainly due to the reversal of one-time savings adjustment from staff turnover experience included in the 2023 Operating Budget and City-wide non-union salary adjustments effective January 1, 2023 that were not contemplated in the 2023 Operating Budget,
- partially offset by a decrease of $0.208 million in the budget, mainly for professional services for experts, specialists and contracted audit professionals and the corresponding delay or deferral of planned IT and cybersecurity audits at certain City agencies and corporations.
Any cost-of-living or performance-based salary adjustments to be applied in 2024 are not reflected as per the Financial Planning Division’s 2024 operating budget guidelines. The Financial Planning Division budgets for these costs City-wide as part of Non-Program expenditures and a request to transfer the allocation to the Auditor General’s Office budget will typically be made in-year.