The notion of having an auditor-general monitor the spending habits of municipalities was never a bad one. The fact that the Union of B.C. Municipalities was so adamantly opposed to the concept suggested there was likely good cause for establishing such an office.
The B.C. Liberals have been suspicious of local governments for years, particularly when it comes to public sector labour agreements. The province's governing party believes cities and municipalities have failed to exhibit the same kind of fiscal discipline it has when it comes to managing wage costs. An auditor-general could identify areas of waste and mismanagement that could save taxpayers millions. Or so the thinking went.
Unfortunately, in trying to turn a good idea into reality, the Liberals ended up displaying the kind of incompetence they were intent on rooting out.
On Monday, the government announced it was firing Basia Ruta, whose tenure as the province's first-ever auditor-general for local government was problematic from the start. In the two years she was on the job, she produced three audits at a cost of $5.2-million. She had promised to churn out 18.
Instead of casting a watchful eye over a personal project of Premier Christy Clark – she promised to create the office during her 2011 leadership bid – the government allowed Ms. Ruta's agency to bumble along with little oversight for nearly 24 months. Even the slightest bit of sleuthing would have ascertained that things inside the organization were not well. Staff morale had plummeted and a lack of leadership had compromised employees' ability to do their job. Consequently, deadlines were being missed.
Unfortunately, we would only learn this after $5.2-million was effectively burned for no good reason.
Things came to a head when the group that was supposed to oversee the Auditor-General for Local Government's office requested an independent inspection of the operation. Ms. Ruta tried to block it through legal avenues. As it turned out, her opposition sealed her fate.
The minister responsible for the agency, Coralee Oakes, said on Monday the auditor-general's efforts to obstruct the planned review had created an "intolerable situation that compounds the unstable work environment and lack of performance from that office." In reality, the intolerable situation had existed almost from the outset.
For whatever reason, Ms. Ruta was not a good fit for this job, and never was. Sometimes, an impressive résumé does not translate into high achievement, particularly in trying to build an organization that has never existed before. That can be a daunting task that requires special skills. It would seem that Ms. Ruta was lacking them and for that she was fired, with cause – which is a particularly rough way to exit when you have three years left on a five-year contract paying you $200,000 annually. The government usually pays out these deals.
Ms. Ruta has already indicated she has hired a lawyer and will fight for her money. And given the deftness with which the government has handled this file, she'll probably get it.
The government has indicated it has initiated a process to find a replacement. That's too bad. It should halt that course of action immediately and begin looking for a way to rethink this initiative. The New Democratic Party, which blew the whistle on this boondoggle, has the right idea: make it part of the provincial auditor-general's department. A stand-alone office with all the extra costs associated with it is not needed.
But we all know that even though the NDP is right, the government will never capitulate. It will forge ahead with its plan because saving taxpayers millions is not as important as saving face. And so we will wait months for Ms. Ruta's replacement to be hired and then months after that for her successor to get a handle on the operation and then months after that for the first audit.
You don't need to be an accountant to know that, so far, this enterprise has been a waste of time and money.
Gary Mason