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Posted: 9 Hours Ago

What initially started off as a dispute between a contractor and the city snowballed into allegations of corruption, two councillors having their pay docked, and finally, an investigation by Greater Sudbury's Auditor General.

Ron Foster presented a report on Tuesday after conducting an investigation into Road Surface Recycling director Frank Crupi's allegations of corruption in the city's engineering services department.

"I sleep better at night having gone through a checklist, not exhaustive but sufficient appropriate evidence for me to say with comfort and confidence that the allegations were not supported by the available evidence," he told audit committee members on Tuesday.

Crupi made these allegations after his company received an order to pause the work it was doing on an asphalt recycling pilot project on a stretch of the Kingsway.

The municipality's engineering department requested the pause to run quality tests and later found out the work completed was not up to the city's standards.

Foster says he emailed Crupi twice in late November to ask for more information about the allegations of corruption but received no response.

In his investigation, Foster reviewed different city processes, including those pertaining to conflict of interest, purchasing and payment, and issue management.

The full report is available here.

He acknowledged the "engineering services portfolio has some uncertainties" but that these matters "are best dealt with by a regular value-for-money audit of engineering services."

Foster says that reportwill be presented to the city council in March.

Aya Dufour is a CBC reporter based in northern Ontario. She often writes about the mining industry and Indigenous sovereignty. Follow her on Twitter @AyaDufour.

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Sudbury's Auditor General finds no evidence of corruption in the city's engineering services - CBC.ca