B.C.’s acting auditor general says an audit into government payments of legal fees in the B.C. Rail saga should be released in July.
Russ Jones, who officially began the auditor general’s job Tuesday, said the office’s audit into special indemnities for government employees will be made public “sometime in late July.”
Former auditor general John Doyle lost a court case for access to records related to the controversial $6-million payment to cover legal fees in the B.C. Rail case. Former government aides Dave Basi and Bobby Virk pleaded guilty to charges of breach of trust and accepting bribes during the government sell-off of B.C. Rail, but still had their lawyer bills paid by taxpayers.
Doyle didn’t quite finish the report before leaving for a new job in Australia, Jones said.
“It’s not going to be specifically about Basi-Virk, but it’s sort of looking at the whole issues of special indemnities in government and how they are given out,” Jones said. “It should be an interesting piece, I think.”
The legal payments for Basi and Virk in 2010 will be an example, but the audit will focus on the administrative framework to authorize legal indemnities for government employees in a consistent and transparent manner, Jones said.
Jones, who had served as assistant auditor general, will remain acting auditor general until the legislature strikes an all-party committee to unanimously select a permanent candidate.
He said his aim is to leave the office operationally and spiritually strong for the next auditor general. Jones added that the mood of the auditor general’s office is “fairly positive” despite recent controversies.
Doyle left the job after a heated public dispute with the provincial government over being denied a second term in office. A legislative committee could not unanimously agree to re-appoint him, leading Doyle to leave for Australia. The government then passed legislation to limit the term of future auditors general to a single eight-year appointment.
Weeks before he left, Doyle fired four officials in his office, most of whom held senior positions. Jones helped with the reductions, calling them “an efficiency measure” for the office.
“It’s been an interesting time,” he said.
“We’ve talked to our staff and explained why the four people left. And that was due to John and myself taking a good look at the organizational structure and just seeing where everybody fit, and where we wanted to take the office in the future.”
In the short term, the auditor general’s office will continue its work with the B.C. legislature, which it had sharply criticized for sloppy accounting procedures last year and incomplete records on MLA expense accounts.
Jones said auditors plan to work with new and re-elected MLAs, as well as whoever is appointed to the legislative assembly management committee, to help them on best practices for MLA expenses and financial disclosure.
