Fiscal format even stumps auditors.

Even auditors find documents complicated

The way the Redford government reports on the province’s finances and deficit is so complicated it’s hard for auditors to figure it out, let alone Albertans, auditor general Merwan Saher said Tuesday.

The auditor general said 2013-14 budget documents have been made “exponentially more complicated,” obscuring the size of the actual deficit.

He questioned whether the new format for releasing fiscal data enables Albertans to hold the government accountable for its spending.

“I can tell you the very best minds in this office have found it challenging,” Saher told reporters in a media teleconference after releasing a 158-page report that questioned government actions and omissions on a broad range of subjects.

Opposition parties have complained since the budget was tabled last March the new format makes it difficult for Albertans to ascertain whether the government is operating a deficit or a surplus because it splits the budget into three sections.

Every political party came up with a different number for the 2013 deficit, but when pressed, finance officials revealed that under the previous reporting format, the budgeted deficit was $1.975 billion.

Finance officials said later they will not be providing that calculation in the future.

Finance Minister Doug Horner has, however, committed to producing a second set of budget documents that will make it easier to compare the government’s projected budget with the result, but his office said those documents won’t be released until the following year in the government’s annual report.

Saher said while the government has agreed to produce comparable financial documents, the timing of their release is still problematic.

“The remaining question from an accountability point of view is when should that constructed budget be made public,” he said. “We believe it should be at the beginning of the cycle.”

Saher said using the government’s new method of reporting finances, the 2011-12 deficit of $114 million would have been reported as a $2.5 billion surplus.

“The differences between these two ways of looking at life is substantial,” he said.

Horner told reporters Tuesday he believed the auditor general is satisfied with the government’s new financial reporting format and its plan to provide a second set of financial documents at the conclusion of the year for comparative purposes.

“My discussions with the auditor general have been very positive,” he said.

Horner shrugged off criticism that the new budget is confusing to Alberta taxpayers.

Opposition critics say the auditor general has confirmed their claim the Redford Tories are deliberately obscuring Alberta’s financial documents.

Wildrose critic Rob Anderson said the new budget format is designed to conceal the size of the deficit and hide the government’s financial blunders.

“Now you have the auditor general of Alberta saying that not even he can understand what the government is doing,” he said.

“I don’t see how Mr. Horner can say he is following generally accepted accounting principles when even the auditor general of the province doesn’t have a clue what he is doing.”