Tight Fiscal ‘Leash’ Strangling BC Auditor General
Prince George, BC – IntegrityBC is calling on the provincial government to give BC’s Auditor General the necessary financial resources and tools to do the job – noting a $10-million dollar disparity between the John Doyle’s budget and that of his counterpart in Alberta.
In a bid to restore integrity in BC politics, the non-partisan, non-profit group says it’s championing more independent oversight of the provincial government, including increased budgets for government watchdog groups like the Auditor-General’s office.
The group points out John Doyle’s office had been seeking a one-time funding increase of $643-thousand dollars for the 2012-13 fiscal year to, in part, train staff in new accounting and auditing standards, but was held to its 2011-12 budget of $15.75-million.
Integrity BC Executive Director, Dermod Travis, says that compares to a budget of $25.65-million for Alberta’s Auditor General’s office. Travis points out both offices oversee comparable operating budgets: BC has $43.1-billion in projected revenue for the current fiscal year and expenses of $43.9-billion, while Alberta’s projected revenue is $40.3-billion and spending of $41.1-billion.
"No one is well-served – neither BC taxpayers nor MLAs – when the Auditor General is kept on a tight fiscal leash," says the Executive Director. "As an independent officer of the Legislature, the BC government should heed the Auditor General’s advice regarding his office’s funding needs."
IntegrityBC’s call comes after a decision earlier this week by Speaker of the Legislature, Bill Barisoff, to not immediately release an audit of MLA expenses submitted by John Doyle. And yesterday’s report from Doyle’s office that the provincial government has understated its 2011-12 deficit by $520-million dollars.
Comments
I seen on an American congressional hearing into the 2008 financial melt down where the head of the SEC admitting that their oversight of the banking sector consisted of a single employee to cover all the investment banks in America. He said their budget was cut and they were in effect blind.
No different than what the BC liberals are all about.
The thing people fail to understand is that Alberta is filthy rich.
It is like saying that you want to spend as much on stuff as your rich uncle. Well, unless you are as rich as your rich uncle, it does not work. You simply have to learn to live with less.
Alberta is the rich uncle……..huh? Gus did you not just read the operating budget paragraph, it says:
Comparable operating budgets: BC has $43.1-billion in projected revenue for the current fiscal year and expenses of $43.9-billion, while Alberta’s projected revenue is $40.3-billion and spending of $41.1-billion.
We are very similar, BC & Alberta. I think if you were comparing Newfoundland to Alberta, then your comment would make sense. However, BC & Alberta are very similar. In fact, one could argue that we are almost twins instead of uncle and nephew/niece.
This is the first time I have seen someone use the budget of a government to speak about the economic well being of a nation or province.
The norm is to use the GDP per capita for the economic measure of well-being. That can be coupled with social and environmental measure of well being to give a more rounded picture.
Here is the measure of GDP/person for the provinces in 2010. The last figure is the percentage increase of Alberta’s GDP over the province shown.
1Alberta$70,826
2Saskatchewan$60,87814.0%
3Newfoundland and Labrador$55,13822.2%
4Ontario$46,30334.6%
5British Columbia$44,84736.7%
6Manitoba$43,95037.9%
7Quebec$40,39443.0%
8New Brunswick$39,11744.8%
9Nova Scotia$38,47545.7%
10Prince Edward Island$34,93750.7%
Still don’t think that Alberta is Canada’s rich uncle?
Oh, and notice ha oil has done to Newfoundland!!!!
ha=what …… ;-)
BC is in with Manitoba, Quebec, NB, NS and PEI …… and 10 years ago it was even worse ……
This is how Alberta promotes its budget.
http://budget2012.alberta.ca/fact-card-economic-revenue-highlights.pdf
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