Legislature Speaker Darryl Plecas says he is being pilloried when he is just trying to protect the interests of the people of B.C.
The questions being hurled at him, he says, are unjustified and unfair. But almost every time he opens his mouth, more troubling questions spring to the minds, not just of politicians and journalists, but of most British Columbians.
Consider his recent words at a legislature committee meeting, when he warned that the mismanagement — or whatever it is — that led him to engineer the suspension of the clerk and the sergeant-at-arms is so egregious that the truth would make citizens vomit. That sounds like serious hanky-panky with the legislature’s finances.
But sitting only feet away was the province’s auditor general, whose office has given the legislature’s books a clean bill of health for the past several years. In the wake of the Speaker’s revelations, the auditor has prudently declined to sign off on the financial statements for the year ending March 31, 2018.
Then on Wednesday, Plecas confounded everyone by saying that whatever he is talking about didn’t necessarily involve fraud.
So if it justified marching the two senior staff out of the legislature under police escort, and it has something to do with finances, but it isn’t necessarily fraud and it wasn’t flagged by the auditor general’s accounting experts, what is it? No, this isn’t a party game. It’s a serious question.
The Speaker has called for a forensic audit. Normal audits certify that the books have been set up in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles. A forensic audit begins from the premise that the books might have been altered or misrepresented to conceal malfeasance. Its purpose is to uncover evidence of fraud, embezzlement or other criminal behaviour that can be prosecuted in court.
If the Speaker doesn’t understand why British Columbians are demanding answers from him, he is a member of a tiny club.
