A senior City of Winnipeg lawyer found herself facing questions in a courtroom-like setting Thursday at the Winnipeg police headquarters inquiry.

The months-long inquiry’s third phase, which began on Wednesday, focuses on City of Winnipeg policies governing major projects during the 2009-14 timeframe when the police headquarters project got underway — as well as city policies today.

A report commissioned by the inquiry found the city does oversee major projects fairly well but recommended some urgent changes to project oversight.

On Thursday, deputy city solicitor Lisa Rowswell, who specializes in procurement, took issue with some aspects of the report, conducted by consulting firm KPMG.

Rowswell, who has worked with the city for 35 years, suggested KPMG did not have the time to fully investigate how well the city conducts project oversight and what progress the city has made since the same firm audited the police headquarters project in 2014.

Rowswell told the inquiry the city did not do its best when it was finalizing the award of the construction contract for the police headquarters project and assigning other related contracts to consultants.

To that end, she spoke of two instances where she did not raise concerns.

During questioning from inquiry counsel Heather Leonoff, Rowswell said she could not recall raising specific objections in 2011, when the city changed the construction bonding requirements for prospective police HQ contractors only six days before a request for proposals closed.

The inquiry heard in February the last-minute change impaired the ability of one national firm to compete for the police HQ contract.

“I would agree if you would be making a change like that, you should be giving a longer term for everyone to adjust,” Rowswell said.

During questions from Gabrielle Lisi, a lawyer representing the City of Winnipeg at the inquiry, Rowswell said she could not recall raising objections in 2012, when the city awarded a sole-sourced, $262,500 police headquarters contract to project director Ossama AbouZeid.

The city’s policy at the time limited such awards to contracts below $100,000, the inquiry has been told.

Rowswell told the inquiry aspects of the police headquarters project were being rushed.

“They were all happening way too quickly. Things were messy. I was trying to get things papered. I was not happy with how things were rolling out,” she said.

The $214-million police headquarters project, which involved the purchase and adaptive reuse of a former Canada Post warehouse and office tower in downtown Winnipeg, was completed three years late and $79 million over its initial budget.

The project was the subject of two internal audits, a five-year RCMP fraud and forgery investigation that concluded without charges, and two lawsuits launched by the city.

One case concluded in 2022 with a judge’s determination that former Winnipeg chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl accepted a $327,200 bribe from police-HQ contractor Armik Babakhanians.

The second lawsuit was settled in 2023 by Babakhanians and his firm Caspian Construction, which agreed to pay the city up to $28 million.

Inquiry asks about Gillingham-era hire

In terms of current city practices, Rowswell was asked about the city’s 2025 decision to hire a chief construction officer to advise city council.

The hiring fulfilled a 2022 election promise by Scott Gillingham, who was elected mayor that year.

“They wanted to have an independent party they could go and ask to validate what the public service is telling them,” Rowswell told the inquiry.

She said there is a “running joke” at city hall that no one takes the advice of public servants seriously until a major consulting firm, such as KPMG or Deloitte, takes a similar position.

The city’s chief construction officer, Tom Sparrow, began testifying Thursday afternoon.