Criticism of the auditor general for local government's lack of production continued in Victoria this week, with the minister responsible now saying they're not content with the output.
"We stated in this House that we're disappointed by the outcome of these audits, and that is why we have a revised plan to ensure, moving forward, that the audits are completed," said Quesnel MLA and Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development Coralee Oakes on Wednesday morning.
"I think the who should be disappointed are the taxpayers of British Columbia," said NDP local government critic Selina Robinson.
The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George is one of 18 communities awaiting the results of best-practice audits from watchdog Basia Ruta and her office. Regional district staff participated in the audit process in the fall of 2013. The report, about how local governments hire suppliers to provide various goods and services, was originally slated for release at the end of March 2014 before being pushed back to the end of August and again to this spring.
While the AGLG's website lists expected publication dates for five reports for this month and next, the one on the local regional district is not available.
Opposition NDP members renewed their press against the government, which created the office of auditor general for local government - Canada's first - in 2012, armed with a leaked report on the office's work environment.
The report, dated January 2015, was prepared by the ministry's strategic human resources branch and reviews the office and employee experience between Jan. 9 and Jan. 30.
Oakes said Wednesday that the review was requested by Ruta.
The review suggests employees are equally disappointed in not having met the timelines as originally set out.
"A lot of time and resources were dedicated to building out timelines to provide an aggressive but reachable conclusion to some of the audit topics," the report said. "Employee feedback was that the time invested in discussing timelines and project managing the work, limited the ability of the staff to get the work done. This was an evident frustration."
The report also described confusion among employees in the 10-member office over roles and responsibilities and frustration over wasted time and work.
"Almost all employees shared examples of preparing work based on direction to find out that the direction had shifted and the work wasn't needed," the report said.
A survey of nine of the employees (one employee declined to participate having just returned from a year of parental leave) suggests more than three quarters of the AGLG's staff were dissatisfied with the organization, more than two thirds were dissatisfied with their jobs. Almost half (45 per cent of respondents) indicated they had no strong preference to stay with the AGLG if offered a similar job elsewhere.
"This is more than a human resource issue, and the minister has a responsibility to be accountable to this House and tell this House and the public of British Columbia how she is going to clean up a mess that so far has cost $5.2 million and resulted in one audit for the people of British Columbia," said NDP justice critic Mike Farnworth.
The AGLG's office has a $2.6 million annual budget. A report on the city of Rossland was released in April 2014.
During Tuesday's question period, Oakes said it was "misleading" to suggest that the office has spent two years worth of its budget on one report.
"The recent resources of the AGLG office have been deployed to support all 18 audits, not just one," Oakes said.
