PCs try to clarify audit process

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This article was published 07/06/2016 (3442 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister has attempted to clarify the government’s position on whether its value-for-money program audit will be an open process.

He said in the legislature Monday the process will be “97 per cent” open and his main concern is to ensure those who come forward with ideas — particularly civil servants — be allowed to do so anonymously, if they wish.

“I want everybody to participate, but I don’t want people to be afraid to participate,” Pallister said after question period.

The premier said he blamed himself for any “confusion” regarding the government’s position on how transparent the process would be. He said protecting the privacy of review participants was his primary concern.

Finance Minister Cameron Friesen was criticized last week for saying “some” of the information collected in the review “will be for the confidence of cabinet.”

The contract to a management consultant to conduct the review has yet to be awarded. It’s expected the process will get underway in early fall.

The Progressive Conservatives said during the recent election campaign they expected the review to find government savings of more than $50 million.

A request for proposals for a consultant to conduct the review, published last month, specifies the winning bid “provide confidential advice and recommendations to the minister of finance for consideration during the development of the next provincial budget.”

On Monday, Pallister promised a transparent process.

Asked whether the government planned to make the review recommendations public, the premier said: “I’m planning on doing a whole open process in respect to the consultative process. I want it open. We’re also going to companion it with a pre-(2017) budget consultative process as well.”

Meanwhile, the PC government was asked again Monday for a breakdown of the $122 million in savings Friesen has claimed it has already identified.

Pallister said the exact amount will be known once the province’s audited financial statements are released.

He said there are “literally hundreds of examples” of where the new government has acted to reduce expenditures. He said Friesen could produce such a list, “but then he wouldn’t have time for anything else.”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca