COVID spending reports unclear: AG
Province spent $4B, but `readers cannot tell' what they achieved
Alberta's auditor general says that after the government spent more than $4 billion responding to the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it failed to clearly report on what that spending did.
In a report released Wednesday, auditor general Doug Wylie looked at how well the government reported on COVID-19 spending in 20 ministry 2020-21 annual reports, finding they didn't offer a “clear picture” of what the spending achieved.
“Nor were the sections comparable across ministries in terms of reporting dollars spent, objectives and results,” the independent officer of the legislature concluded. Wylie said as a matter of accountability, the government needs to do better.
“Without effective COVID-19 reporting, readers cannot tell what the government achieved in spending $4 billion on programs to help Albertans during the pandemic, especially our children, seniors and other vulnerable people,” Wylie's report said.
It highlighted an outstanding recommendation the auditor general made in 2019 to the finance ministry to enhance rules and training for ministry management on reporting results and to improve on how it monitors compliance.
It also flagged concerns across ministries, noting in many instances it couldn't see how money was spent and what it achieved.
In one example, the health ministry failed to report how much it spent on things like personal protective equipment, contact tracing and rapid testing, and didn't reveal how many COVID-19 vaccines it received from the federal government, nor what it achieved by spending $260 million to protect staff and residents in long-term care, designated supportive living facilities and seniors' lodges.
Paul Hamnett, press secretary to Finance Minister Jason Nixon, said in a statement Wednesday the department has hosted training sessions for ministries on reporting principles and on linking financial information to non-financial results. He said the government is working on fully addressing the 2019 recommendation.
“Treasury Board and finance is taking steps to ensure Albertans get clear and consistent information across all ministry annual reports on the government's COVID-19 and recovery plan spending,” Hamnett said, noting after feedback from the auditor general, the finance ministry has provided guidance to other ministries on the importance of reporting clearly on federal transfers, and including major expenditures not part of their original plans.
He said the finance ministry has told other ministries to develop a dedicated COVID-19 section in each of its annual reports, reflected in the latest annual reports.
The auditor general's report did note good reporting practices in some departments, including the energy ministry's detailed rundown of the Site Rehabilitation Program, funded by the federal government and aimed at the closure and reclamation of oil and gas sites, as well as the jobs, economy and innovation ministry's reporting of results of the Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant program.
At an unrelated news conference in Calgary, NDP Leader Rachel Notley took aim at former finance minister Travis Toews, who is now running for the UCP leadership, accusing him of failing to ensure the government properly accounted for how $4 billion was spent during his tenure.
“That, to me, demonstrates someone who is simply not equipped to manage a $60 billion budget if he can't account for what he does with four billion extra dollars in one year,” she said. “I find it hard to believe he's suitable to run for premier.”
In a statement to Postmedia, Toews said that as finance minister he strove for better reporting practices across government, and during the pandemic the government delivered unprecedented supports.
“That was our focus and primary objective throughout 2020 and '21. Reporting practices continue to be improved and updated, in order to be transparent with Alberta's taxpayers,” he said, accusing Notley of being unaware of the auditor general's actual finding.
“( With me) as premier, you'll continue to see Alberta's books balanced, economy growing and government transparent — unlike under Rachel Notley's NDP,” he said.
When asked for clarification on why the 2019 recommendations were still outstanding, Toews's spokesman Alex Puddifant said “any government led by Travis will of course follow through on implementing the auditor general's recommendations.”
Meanwhile, freedom of information documents released by the NDP Wednesday suggest Alberta Health explored plans to pilot a project that would send some surgical patients and their surgeons to a private facility in British Columbia.
Notley said nearly 400 pages of emails and documents from officials within Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services that discussed piloting a project that would see surgeries performed at the Okanagan Health Surgical Centre between October 2021 and February 2022 show a plan that was “utterly ridiculous.”
Steve Buick, press secretary for Health Minister Jason Copping, said there is no plan to contract surgeries to other provinces and there was never a decision to do so.