Auditor general says N.S. making progress on past recommendations, but issues remain
Government's 3-year completion rate is up, but some areas have seen little progress
Nova Scotia's auditor general says the provincial government is doing a better job following up on recommendations from reports, but there is still work to do in certain areas.
Kim Adair released a followup report on Tuesday that looks at the status of recommendations from performance audits in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In a news release, she noted that the government has been able to increase its three-year completion average from 60 to 80 per cent.
"The government's commitment to carrying out the recommendations shows it values the work and the recommendations made by the office," Adair said in the release.
The report shows that 70 per cent of recommendations from 2020 (14 of 20) are now complete. After three years, the government has completed all of the recommendations from 2021, while 74 per cent of the 2022 recommendations (42 of 57) are now complete.
Work still to do
Adair's report does highlight what she believes are important outstanding recommendations from past reports.
They include:
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Two out of five recommendations from a 2020 audit on contaminated sites. Public Works still doesn't have a complete inventory of known and potentially contaminated sites under provincial responsibility, and a risk-based approach to prioritize those sites is still not complete. In response, the department says required policies have been developed and are being finalized through working groups, but there is no timeline for completion.
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None of the four recommendations related to a 2020 audit on the QEII redevelopment project are complete. That includes the calls for Build Nova Scotia to complete mitigation strategies and ensuring the master plan reflects identified user needs. Build Nova Scotia says that work is underway and will be complete between this year and 2031, depending on the status of project work.
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Of the 20 recommendations in a 2022 audit on oversight and management of government-owned housing, 12 remain incomplete. That includes not assessing the eligibility criteria and screening process to determine who gets housing, and not implementing a lease renewal process that verifies if tenants remain eligible for public housing. The Growth and Development Department responded, saying that the work is underway and most of it will be complete in the next fiscal year.
The report also draws attention to the fact that Public Works still has not made good on five of seven recommendations from a 2019 audit on quality management of bridge projects in the central and western districts of the province.
The department responded by saying it's making progress and expects to have the majority of the recommendations complete later this year, but Adair told reporters she isn't sure why the work is taking the department so long to complete.
"We're five years after that report and recommendation, and today they cannot say that in that provincewide system they have a complete inventory of the inspections of all of the province's 4,200 bridges," she told reporters.
"You need a provincewide system that you can rely on … It's a public safety issue, right? So I'm surprised that five years out they do not have them done."
Adair said she's hoping members of the legislature's standing committee on public accounts pick up her questions and put them to department officials.
Tuesday's report follows efforts by the Progressive Conservative government during the winter session at Province House to pass legislation that would have given the legislature the ability to fire the auditor general without cause if it had two-thirds support of the House.
It also wanted to give cabinet ministers the ability to suppress part of or all reports from the auditor general.
Premier Tim Houston backed down from the plan in the face of heated criticism from Adair, opposition MLAs and members of the public.
Adair said that experience had no impact on how she framed Tuesday's report, noting that the results of the audit work were known to her office even before the PC omnibus legislation was tabled at Province House.
"I think that given the overall results, it was fair to acknowledge the positive outcome," she said.
"There's mixed commentary in today's report, but I think it's fairly articulated and warranted."
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