The auditor general for local government took time out from her fight with the outfit she reports to and released another audit last week. It's an underwhelming piece of work that again raises the question: What is the point of this office?
Even if the $200,000-a-year person in charge of the office managed to meet her own deadlines, taxpayers who are supposed to be benefiting from these exercises will be wondering if they're getting anything worthwhile.
In the hazy dream world in which this outfit was created, the premise was that a municipal auditor would go around B.C. finding better ways to do things.
Premier Christy Clark pitched it during her leadership run in order to appeal to business taxpayers who resented municipal tax hikes. In a perfect world, it would find enough savings to justify the existence of the watchdog in the first place.
After two years, there's not much to justify the $5 million in costs. Basia Ruta took on the job in 2013 and outlined a brisk schedule to complete 18 audits. The count today stands at three, two of them on one issue in Rossland from four years ago. The new one is about operational procurement in the city of Delta. It can be summed up in three words: No story here. There's room for a few improvements around the edges, but Ruta found Delta is committed to value, has many strengths, good oversight and robust policies.
If anyone in Delta was ever gripped with anxiety about operational procurement there, they can rest easy. Audits don't necessarily have to find problems; they can be valuable in highlighting good practices as well.
But if you picture any local government officials -- who for the most part know what they're doing -- reading this report with the attitude of "tell me something I don't know," you'd be hard-pressed to imagine them learning anything.
There are five more coming on how other towns procure goods and services. Taxpayers wait and wonder.
While there wasn't much in the Delta report, Ruta has prompted some wonderment with her new argument in the fight with the audit council that oversees her work. The council has been concerned for months about the production rate in her office, to the point where it retained retired deputy minister Chris Trumpy this week to do an independent review.
Ruta said the move was "unlawful."
It's a startling declaration. There's nothing obvious in the relevant legislation that would bar such an appointment.
But Ruta supplied some correspondence between lawyers that cites concerns that Trumpy isn't independent. That strikes a false note, given Trumpy's 30 years' service for various governments and solid reputation.
What's more pertinent is the tone of the letters. It establishes that the audit council and the auditor are firmly engaged in hostilities and there's no sign of them ending any time soon. The council's lawyer said Trumpy's review will help "in understanding the reasons for the underperformance of the office."
Ruta's lawyer said she's disappointed the council has tried for the third time to hire an unauthorized agent. The council responded that it's concerned and disappointed with her response. Everybody's disappointed except the Opposition, who will relish the chance to explore how a questionable concept was so poorly executed.
Still in the background is the leaked human-resources review from last week that found the 10-person office is dysfunctional and frustrated with constantly shifting focus, changing priorities and meetings that regularly run over time.
They're 15 audits behind schedule and they're spending thousands on lawyers to write letters to each other and thousands more on independent reviews, while producing not much in the way of useful reports.
One of the more absurd solutions proposed is to have the auditor general of B.C. audit the auditor general of local government. Only in B.C. would that loony idea get pitched with a straight face.
Another solution is to fire her outright and ditch the concept, or replace her and start over. Keep your head up while watching this mess. The injunction applications might start flying soon.
