When are audits done and who decides which departments are to be audited? Digital Services didn't think they needed to be audited

By Pepper Parr

March 9^th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

Macie Jurczyk, the City Auditor

Macie Jurczyk, the City Auditor does four audits each year. The Audit department consists of the Auditor and one staff person.

The Audit committee is made up of both Council and community members.   The Audit Committee members are:

• Councillor Kearns
• Councillor Sharman
• Mathew Moore
• Etienne Durafour
• Michael Di Iulio
• Kartik Gupta
• Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, an ex-officio voting member of the Committee

At a recent meeting of the Audit Committee Chad McDonald, Chief Information Officer, Burlington Digital Services explained how his department does self audits.

“With software, we’re seeing extreme amounts of increases with software, especially with our cloud software, that’s industry wide, that’s not just affecting Burlington.

Chad McDonald: Chief Information Officer, Burlington Digital Services.

“I can talk about some of the stuff we’re doing as a management team that doesn’t necessarily tie into an audit, but the processes we’re putting into place. We’re doing full observation of our overall software licensing schema. We’re looking for opportunities where we might be able to right-size our software. One that I think everybody can relate to is Microsoft.

“We have a significant expenditure with Microsoft from our email to our productivity software to Teams, things that almost everybody uses. These items, for instance, are going up at least 13% in 2027 because they’re removing all of the discounts for government. We’re working towards identifying and making sure that we have right-sized everything.

“We’re creating a number of personas, what type of licensing each individual should have. We’re working with my colleagues, commissioners and chiefs, in order to do this. We are actively looking at our software licensing and how we may be able to do this more efficiently and ensuring that we’re using software as effectively as possible within the organization.

“There’s no audit required in order for us to do that, because we’ve already recognized that this is a significant area of cost for the organization and also an increasing pressure for the organization.”

The Net Budget for Digital Services in 2026 is set at $15,033,000.00, an increase of 7% over 2025