It turns out the acrimonious relationship between the B.C. Liberals and John Doyle, the former provincial auditor general, isn't over.
Even though Doyle returned to his native Australia last year, he hasn't forgotten how rotten he was treated by the reigning government. Nor has he apparently forgotten about some money he says he's owed.
Doyle's lawyer filed a statement of civil claim this week in B.C. Supreme Court, demanding the government make good on his 18 weeks of vacation time, 10 weeks of retirement entitlement, some pension money and reimbursement for travel and expenses related to selling his Victoria house and moving back Down Under.
Doyle's claim states that these were all conditions agreed to by both parties when Doyle took the job in the summer of 2007 and that the government did not answer o his request in December 2013 to pay up.
The government isn't responding, since it's before the courts, but it's already said enough. Last March, just before Doyle's May departure, the Liberals left him a parting gift in the form of a leak to the news media from unnamed government officials that the RCMP was investigating his expenses.
The RCMP won't say whether they investigated Doyle or not but the fact Crown has not brought charges forward speaks to whether there was anything behind throwing mud on Doyle's reputation.
It wasn't always this way.
Doyle was appointed in 2007 by a unanimous vote in the legislature. The auditor-general serves as an independent officer to report on government spending and contracts. In other words, it's the AG's job to see if government is getting good value for its dollar and, when necessary, blow the whistle on government shenanigans.
Starting in 2008, Doyle fired off audit after audit about Liberal mismanagement. Instead of taking their lumps from the auditor they appointed and fixing the problems, however, the Liberals interpreted the audits as political attacks and the AG as some bumbling bozo suddenly unqualified for the job they appointed him to do.
"If Mr. Doyle thinks this is the way we do business in Canada, he's dead wrong," complained then forests minister Pat Bell, after Doyle called out Bell's predecessor Rich Coleman for removing thousands of hectares out of a Vancouver Island tree farm licence. Coleman knew full well the move amounted to a gift of 75,000 acres of coveted real estate worth about $200 million to Western Forest Products, Doyle said in his report.
And on it went.
Doyle blasted the government for failing to meet the needs of aboriginal children under the care of child protection services and then hounded the Liberals for details on the controversial plea-bargain payout of two government aides and their $6 million legal bill after the duo plead guilty to corruption charges in connection with the B.C. Rail scandal.
And then Doyle went after MLA expenses.
By the time his six-year appointment came up for renewal, the Liberals had enough. The legislature committee, stacked with Liberals, offered Doyle an insincere two-year extension to his term and then in the very next breath announced their plans to introduce legislation for eight-year terms for future auditor generals.
Safe to say, he hold the Liberals what to do with their offer.
Doyle's greatest crime as AG was that he regularly exposed the B.C. Liberals as sloppy financial managers that ignore basic policy and procedure when it inconveniences them. Considering that is the cornerstone of the party's political platform for every election, they simply couldn't stand having a government employee they couldn't control wielding the power and the authority to expose the myth.
His demand for the outstanding amount due on his contract isn't because he's unemployed and hard up for cash. Doyle returned to Australia and started working in Melbourne last summer as the auditor-general for the state government of Victoria.
In its own way, this is Doyle's last audit report for the taxpayers of B.C. He's shown the Liberals can pay millions for two government aides caught accepting bribes and then hide behind solicitor-client privilege when questions are asked but they can't seem to square up on his outstanding vacation pay.
He's once again reminded B.C. residents that the Liberals are still spending money as they please, instead of as they should.
