2015 Financial Annual Report

CITY OF SURREY OVERVIEWS

FINANCE & TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT

The Finance &Technology Department delivers financial expertise, risk management, information technology services, advice and guidance to support all City operations. The Department provides responsive services and innovative solutions required to streamline City processes, facilitating gains in efficiencies. The Department leads process improvements and sets, as well as maintains, financial and information technology practices, policies and standards. The department has the responsibility for the following divisions/sections:

FINANCIAL REPORTING Financial Reporting includes long-term financial planning, annual budget development, accounting, procurement and statutory financial reporting; responsible for presenting an annual five-year financial plan which establishes financial and programming priorities. The Financial Reporting Division also keeps Management and Council informed about the City’s financial performance on a quarterly basis, ensuring the City meets its annual budget and targeted savings. In addition, this Division coordinates the procurement of high quality, cost-effective goods and services, while ensuring all polices are followed and best practices implemented. The Procurement section follows applicable legislation and ensures appropriate public and competitive processes are applied. management, accounts payable, and taxation. Staff calculate, levy, and collect property taxes, water and sewer billing and other payments, to ensure completeness and accuracy, as well as monitor cash flow and invest funds for maximum return while minimizing risk and adhering to the City’s Investment Policy. Staff also ensure that all employees are paid correctly on a bi-weekly basis and that external vendor invoices are paid in a timely and cost effective manner. FINANCIAL SERVICES Financial Services includes payroll, investments, treasury, cash

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) Information Technology (IT) works to implement and support innovative technological best practices to maximize efficiencies in City service delivery, and improve customer service; as a corporate service, this includes providing all City departments with consulting, technology research, analysis, development, maintenance and support. RISK MANAGEMENT Risk Management provides service and expertise in risk management, insurance, claims, litigation and loss control. By incorporating Enterprise Wide Risk Management practices, they are able to identify, manage and reduce the overall cost of risk. INTERNAL AUDIT Internal Audit is responsible for reviewing business processes, policies and procedures for efficiency, control and compliance. It also investigates internal and external breaches of control, conducts specialized projects, investigates breaches related to the City’s Code of Conduct Bylaw, provides commodity tax services to the City and develops the annual Corporate Audit Plan.

2 0 1 5 A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S

• Through the City’s energy efficient printer fleet, along with sustainable practices like duplex printing and scanning, annual print volume decreased by 27%, energy use and GHG emissions reduced by 47% (84,000 kWh and 0.76t CO2e respectively), paper use reduced by 10.2 tonnes (duplexing saved 1.12M sheets of 20lb paper), and toner waste reduced by 7.2 tonnes through the use of environmentally friendly resin-based ink. • Implemented annual stewardship replacement actions to proactively safeguard the stability, security, supportability and performance of the City’s mission critical computing platforms, enabling the City to be agile and highly responsive to opportunities offered by rapidly evolving technological advancements.

• City of Surrey was named as one of the Top 7 Intelligent Communities of 2015 by NewYork-based think tank Intelligent Community Forum. • Improved compliance with legislation and the City’s ability to identify and mitigate cyber security risks through enhancements to the City’s Cyber Security Risk Assessment Process including the implementation of an Advanced Threat Detection system. • Enabled organizers of special events to submit applications online via a user friendly web application. The entire application and approval can be performed online on a single platform. • Created the Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) assessment process and aligned it with the current PIA/ Security review process.

• Completed review of the Property tax section to evaluate and ensure that controls and processes in place provide confidence that all taxes, levies and charges are being appropriately applied and collected. • Received the Canadian Award for Financial Reporting for the 2014 Annual Report and the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the 2015–2019 Financial Plan. • Continued to develop the City’s new Financial System, upgrading the processes, adding Accounts Receivable functionality and continuing with overall process efficiencies. • Continued to advance E-Finance services such as e-billing, invoice submission, electronic fund transfers.

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