The report, released Wednesday, examined the analysis and financial information sections of the ministry’s 20 annual reports. Among its findings, the audit could not identify how $ 1.3 billion in federal assistance for the Safe Restart Agreement went through the ministries and was spent. Auditor General Doug Wylie said the lack of disclosure is a matter of accountability. “What we’re trying to point out is that there’s an opportunity for Alberts to improve, so that they have a better idea not only of its cost – we can see that it cost $ 4 billion or the Safe Restart Program was $ 1.3 billion.” said Wylie said in an interview Wednesday. “But what was achieved with that? Where did the money go? And what were the results?” A key finding was that the analysis of results did not always include costs and results. Examples given include:
The Ministry of Health discloses the amount of PPE and the rapid test that was distributed, but not how much was spent on each of the PPE categories, contact tracking and rapid testing. The Ministry of Health does not disclose the number of vaccines received by the federal government. The Department of Health does not describe what it has achieved by spending $ 260 million to protect long-term care staff and residents. The Department of Education does not disclose individual initiative costs or results for $ 263 million in safe classroom spending.
The report also notes that the Treasury Department did not have a standard report form for COVID-19, which means that program costs, targets and results could not be easily compared. Information about COVID-19 activities was also not always cross-referenced, he said.
Look forward
Wylie said incorporating these missing pieces can help identify strengths in some areas or weaknesses in others – valuable learning information for the future. “Unless you start to integrate and look at it from that perspective, you just do not have the information to make that kind of decision.” The report noted some examples of good reporting practices, including the Small and Medium Business Restart Grant program. Wylie’s office did not make any new recommendations, but reiterated one from 2019: that the Finance and Finance Council is improving guidance and training for ministry management on results in annual reports and procedures for monitoring ministry compliance with results analysis reporting standards. “We firmly believe that by implementing these recommendations that will help the whole process, therefore, no matter what happens in the future, the process should be able to handle it in the future,” Wylie said.
Reporting standards updated
Paul Hamnett, spokesman for Treasury Secretary Jason Nixon, said that after reviewing the annual reports, the Finance and Finance Council instructed ministries to develop specific modules for COVID-19 at the beginning of the results analysis modules. These updated standards were reflected in the 2021-2022 annual reports released on Tuesday, he said. “The department continues to cooperate with the ministries to deal with it [Office of the Auditor General’s] “Recommendations for improving the analysis of results report,” said Hamnett. Opposition leader Rachel Notley said the report emphasized that the Albertans “could not trust the UCP to manage their money”. “While no one is suggesting that it was not used in government … Travis Tous failed to give a clear picture of exactly how it was used.” Toews, MLA for Grande Prairie-Wapiti, was finance minister until May 31, when he resigned to run for the UCP. In an e-mail statement, Toews said the pandemic response was the ministry’s primary concern in 2020-21, but that reporting practices continue to improve and be updated. “The truth is that unlike when the NDP was in power, Alberta now has not only a balanced budget but a huge surplus in favor of the Alberts.”
