Tag Archive: Auditor General

As UK Auditor disparages P3s, BC continues to use them

Jan 25, 2018
The public private partnership (P3) model to provide public infrastructure and services is an expensive mess, and new international evidence confirms this. The question now becomes, when is that mess going to wash up on BC’s shore? Despite increasing evidence that P3s are a bad idea, BC’s government is going ahead with this flawed procurement model,… View Article

Ontario Auditor breaks new ground with review of public private partnerships methodology: BC Auditor says maybe, sometime

Jan 5, 2015
Last month Ontario’s Auditor General issued her annual report. One of her targets was Ontario’s use of public private partnerships to build public infrastructure. As the Toronto Star put it, “Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk has taken a wrecking ball to the (Ontario) Liberals’ use of private money to bankroll new hospitals and transit…” Lysyk’s report… View Article

New BC Auditor General report finds public private partnerships double the cost of borrowing

Oct 30, 2014
British Columbia’s new Auditor General, Carol Bellringer, published her annual report on government’s 2013-14 summary financial statements today and it contains some pretty interesting highlights. First of all, and for the first time, the AG has published a comparison of how much it costs the government to undertake projects on its own compared to using… View Article

Quebec’s Auditor General slams highway public private partnership

Jun 12, 2014
Yesterday Quebec’s Auditor General came out with a report slamming public private partnerships in that province.  The special audit was conducted at the request of the Conseil du trésor.  It looked at the agreement for the seven service areas on Québec’s highways. The following is a summary of the findings. The analysis conducted to demonstrate… View Article

How Doctors are Paid in BC

Feb 22, 2014
  [A version of this piece was posted on the Tyee] Health care is the biggest, most expensive and most important thing that government does. Hospital care swallows up a large proportion of the health care budget, but primary care in the community takes care of most patient needs and keeps people out of hospital…. View Article

You always learn something when accountants feud

Dec 9, 2013
Every year in BC people who follow government get an early Christmas present in late November,  For the better part of a week BC’s Auditor General sits down with the legislature’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to talk about the Auditor General’s reports. This year’s encounter was quieter than some in the past.  Former Auditor General… View Article

The staggering future costs of the BC government’s contracts

Jul 27, 2012
As usual, there has been quite a hubbub surrounding this week’s release of British Columbia’s Public Accounts.  The provincial auditor says the provincial deficit is $520 million more than the government admits. And then there is the Auditor General’s review of finances at the legislature that found “substantial irregularities.” But all of the above is… View Article

Tax haven based company buys more BC P3s: British Auditor General questions profits in such transactions

Feb 14, 2012
Two of British Columbia’s public private partnership (P3) projects have changed hands again and once again the new owner resides in a European tax haven. In a separate but related development, last Friday Britain’s Auditor General released a report questioning very high level of profits for some British P3 projects partially generated by flipping the… View Article