Public kept in dark, Saher says
Auditor concludes government provides superficial information Alberta’s auditor general castigated the provincial government Tuesday for its failure to fully report its activities to Albertans.
Merwan Saher concluded the governing Tories provide only superficial information about ministry activities across-the-board: They fail to identify the most important issues, provide scant information about progress and skimp on analysis, he said.
In an 86-page report Tuesday, Saher said that instead of giving Albertans meaningful information, departmental annual reports tend to “provide long lists of activities and programs.
“I’m not saying the government doesn’t know what it’s doing,” Saher said. “I’m saying the government isn’t telling Albertans.”
He said Albertans deserve high-quality information, and should demand it from their government.
“There is often a feeling that if things are not going well … let’s maybe not talk about it, and maybe it will go away,” Saher said. “That’s completely the wrong thing to do. When things aren’t going well, explain why they’re not going well, explain what you’re learning, and what you plan to do about it.
“Ministerial oversight has been lacking, because good oversight would have insisted on there being good results reporting.”
Saher also repeated six outstanding recommendations, highlighting the government’s “amazing” failure to provide even a single public report detailing the outcomes of the 2008 climate-change strategy.
He also called on the Progressive Conservative government to provide a more deta i led “con st r ucted budget” at the beginning of the fiscal year, when the budget is first tabled — a request Finance Minister Doug Horner flatly refused.
“There is a wide range of opinion on the presentation of the provincial budget,” Horner said in a statement, but it is “a policy document that remains at the full discretion of the government.”
Saher’s criticisms of the ministries’ annual reports comes one week after the 2013-14 annual reports were released to the public.
“These annual reports really are just public relations documents, and they cost literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to put together,” Wildrose critic Rob Anderson said. “It’s a substantial cost, and it’s a useless exercise.”
Anderson said a Wildrose government would work with independent experts to establish objective goals for each ministry, and consult with Saher on the best reporting practices.
Saher laid out the ideal system in a detailed coda to his investigative report, highlighting the need for governance, oversight and accountability.
The format of annual reports is dictated by Treasury Board, and spokeswoman Carolyn Gregson said in a statement the government accepts his recommendations and has “already started to implement changes.”
In part, she said the government is providing more training to those who prepare the reports, and has revised its standards, though she did not respond to a request to release a copy of the old and new standards.
“They’re trying to politicize these annual reports,” NDP critic David Eggen said. “I think this government likes to cherry-pick in information.”
He said the Tories use everything “for their own political ends,” adding: “The failure of annual reports is a fundamental failure of this government.”
Liberal critic Kent Hehr said the current planning and reporting process is in “chaos.
“Instead of addressing the truth, they’re trying to put up some shiny balls and balloons to distract the electorate,” he said. “Albertans are smarter than that. Despite their best efforts at spin doctoring, I think Albertans have had enough.”