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Projects at the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) are sometimes going forward without proper budgets and with inaccurate reporting to oversight bodies, according to a new audit.
The city’s auditor general, Nathalie Gougeon, released an audit of OPS project management that found several gaps that could raise questions about whether the force is getting value for money or achieving its goals.
The findings come as OPS works on major projects like a new district policing model that has gone over budget, as well as a new south facility that has faced cost pressures from poor soil conditions. The force is also planning to buy hundreds of body cameras at a cost of about $30 million.
“As OPS’s core mandate is policing rather than project delivery, strong project management practices are essential to ensure initiatives are executed efficiently and there is prudent use of public funds,” according to the audit, which was requested by the Ottawa Police Service Board (OPSB).
Gougeon’s office found OPS practices fall short on several fronts. Project management isn’t centralized and lacks a formal oversight role. Instead, it’s split between three separate branches that use their own approaches.
There’s also no detailed policy framework to make sure projects are done properly and no formal intake process that would allow the force to prioritize and choose the best projects, the audit concluded.
The audit found the board that oversees the police service doesn’t always get reliable information from OPS. (Ottawa Police Service/Facebook)
Gougeon found that those working on some projects failed to document key steps, raising the risk that they might be delivered “with reduced quality and efficiency.”
Gougeon’s audit says that some projects are under-resourced. Costing is inconsistent. Some are operating without any formal approved budget, while still others are using budgets known to be insufficient.
That can create “an increased risk of cost overruns and a weakened accountability for project spending,” according to the audit.
That’s precisely what happened with the move to district policing, a new model that decentralizes OPS operations into four separate zones. The budget for that was initially set at just $600,000.
That was later increased to $2.2 million. Yet OPS has already spent $5.2 million on the initiative.
The chief of police and his senior team get regular updates on strategic projects. The force also reports to the OPSB, an oversight body that includes city councillors. Yet Gougeon’s audit found that they aren’t always getting reliable information.
As one example, a December 2025 report to the board contained “inaccuracies” such as outdated budgets for projects like body cameras.
Information provided to the leadership team can be “vague” and fail to properly flag risk, according to the audit, like a 25 per cent increase to a quote from a body camera vendor.
Gougeon’s audit made seven recommendations on everything from training to budgeting. OPS management accepted all of them.
The audit is set to come up for debate at a committee meeting of the police service board on Tuesday.
It comes shortly after the board declined to approve a new $233 million training facility, saying OPS needed to give it more options.