Bellringer surprised to be sidestepped
B.C.’s auditor general expresses concern that MLAs want outside forensic audit of legislature
VICTORIA — B.C.’s auditor general says she’s disappointed Speaker Darryl Plecas didn’t tell her about alleged misspending in the legislature and is unhappy that MLAs are hiring an auditor from another province to review the situation.
Carol Bellringer said she was surprised when MLAs from the NDP, Liberals and Green parties voted unanimously Monday to ask an outside auditor general to conduct a forensic audit into spending concerns in the legislature. That move came following the release of Plecas’s report into allegedly inappropriate expenses by suspended clerk Craig James and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz.
“To not have their support is a problem,” Bellringer said of MLAs. “I did not see that coming. I don’t know why they reached that decision.
“Now that it is out there, the part I don’t understand is having kept it from our office, they are now suggesting I can’t do an audit of what’s been revealed. That’s problematic. We certainly have the ability to just do it ourselves.”
Bellringer said she’ll be phoning Plecas and MLAs from the parties to ask if they still have confidence in her office. Ultimately, it’s MLAs who are responsible for the expense approval in the building, she said, not her.
“I’m not trying to deflect responsibility but there is a lack of clarity around (the idea) I should have somehow been aware of everything going on in the legislature,” Bellringer said. “I’m not the one approving the expenses. There’s a system of approval on things; we’d look to see if the approvals are in place but we’re not doing the approvals ourselves.”
Premier John Horgan expressed confidence in Bellringer on Wednesday after her concerns were made public.
“The auditor general of British Columbia, of course, is independent. They had done a review not six years ago, so they have already got the expertise, they know how the ledgers work. I think that’s probably the best way forward,” he said. “But I will leave it to those people (MLAs on the legislature management committee) to figure out.”
Bellringer agreed that Plecas’s report raises troubling concerns inside the building. It builds, she says, on audit concerns her office has raised about the legislature since 2007.
“The report is listing a number of abuses of public monies,” she said. “It’s a good thing that it’s being looked into. There is an example of misspending and clearly some poor oversight.”
But she said it was not acceptable for Plecas to keep her office in the dark for the past year while he’s been investigating the matter. The independent auditor general audits the legislature’s annual financial statement each year and sits as an adviser on the finance and audit committee of MLAs overseeing spending policies within the building.
“The minute there was any concern we should have been brought in,” she said.
Liberal house leader Mary Polak has said some MLAs in the legislative management committee felt Bellringer’s office was too close to the issue.
“If someone said to me you are too close to it, well, too close to what?” Bellringer asked.
“They did not reveal to me what they were suspecting, and now it has been revealed and the normal process would be to advise me at the audit committee meetings and determine what work we need to do. I’m only hearing about it with the public. That’s not the role of the independent auditors. So are they saying there’s a problem with us, or just in this particular case?”