Alberta’s Auditor General Fred Dunn recently announced the delay or cancellation of 27 out of 80 planned system and financial audits due to budget constraints and yesterday, after opposition MLAs once again attempted (and failed) to increase funding for the Auditor General, the remarks of two backbench PC MLAs really caught my attention:
Calgary-Egmont MLA Jonathan Denis:
“Realistically everybody would like more money, I would like more money, but the reality is we froze our paycheques this year. This is the first time in 15 years we froze our paycheques. And similarly we don’t want to ge giving extra money to departments where that’s not required.”
Athabasca-Redwater MLA Jeff Johnson:
“We’re in a time of great financial restraint,” Johnson said. “I don’t know how we (justify) going from $21.5 million to $25 million in one year….” “Nobody has enough money to do the job they’d like to do.”
The mandate of the Auditor General of Alberta is to ‘identify opportunities and propose solutions for the improved use of public resources, and to improve and add credibility to performance reporting, including financial reporting, to Albertans.‘ Ensuring financial and systematic efficiency through these audits is one of our government’s most important responsibilities to the hardworking citizens and taxpayers of this province. Albertans should not have to wait until good economic times for the Auditor General to have the resources to do the most effective job possible.
