Don’t read too much into ‘horror stories’

The annual report of the auditor- general on government spending usually contains a litany of “ horror stories” about misuse and mismanagement of the public purse. And the media and opposition parties lap it up, thereby contributing to the corrosive cynicism about government that pervades the land. So it was yesterday with the release of the annual report of Ontario Auditor- General Jim McCarter on spending by the provincial government.

“ A damning indictment” was how Conservative Leader John Tory characterized the report in the Legislature yesterday.

Indeed, the report itemizes a wide range of government screw- ups, including: questionable practices in the issuance of drivers’ licences; slow response times by ambulances; slack oversight of charitable gambling; absence of standards in the teaching of English as a second language; insufficient monitoring of spending on day care; growing incidence of errors in laboratory tests; overuse of consultants and temporary help, and unnecessary expenditures on hospitality. But on closer examination, the stories aren’t so horrific.

First of all, much of the auditor- general’s criticism is about process. His report abounds with phrases like “ procedures were often not followed” or “ it was not certain whether the operator had met the criteria.”

This is not to deny that procedures are necessary and important. But the report stops well short of making a case of gross malfeasance.

There is no federal sponsorship scandal here or, to use a private- sector analogy, none of the crimes allegedly committed by Conrad Black.

Secondly, much of the report focuses on arms’length agencies that do not report to the government ( such as Elections Ontario, which is responsible to the Legislature); on funding partners that answer to other electorates ( such as municipalities and school boards); and on private sector firms to which government contracts out work ( laboratories).

Moreover, even in these cases the report is far from “ a damning indictment.” Rather, the auditorgeneral poses questions about whether the government has “ appropriate monitoring and accountability mechanisms” for such indirect spending.

In the case of the labs, the auditor- general found that “ significant errors” in tests were up 23 per cent from the previous year. But the actual number of such errors remains small — 825, or 1.2 per cent of the total tests in the past year. As for the questionable hospitality expenditures, the example given by the auditor- general was a dinner hosted by Elections Ontario for two foreign officials. Four Elections Ontario officials and two of their spouses also attended the dinner, which cost $ 1,162, or $ 145 per person. The auditorgeneral suggested this was “ excessive.”

In the private sector — particularly on Bay Street — no one would blink at such a dinner.

That’s different, you say, because the money is private? Tell that to the shareholders, including the vast majority of Ontarians through their pension funds. The auditor- general’s criticisms of the drivers’ licence issuing system attracted much of the media attention yesterday.

In this case, however, the multiple problems appear to stem from too much penny- pinching by the government, starting with the previous Conservative regime, which slapped a freeze on the fees paid to the issuing offices and severely cut back internal audits. As McCarter noted at his press conference yesterday, Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar “ got the message” and has already begun fixing the problems. Such responses by government to the auditorgeneral’s report appear to be the rule rather than the exception.

At the back of yesterday’s report is a chapter following up on recommendations from the previous year.

In every case, the auditor- general notes that there has been at least “ some progress” made by the government, and in several cases the progress is termed “ significant” or “ substantial.”

In other words, for all its imperfections, the system is working as it should. Ian Urquhart’s provincial affairs column appears Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. iurquha@thestar.ca.