OTTAWA – Michael Ferguson was mired in controversy before he even took a step into the Office of the Auditor General.
Many times during those long weeks when his inability to speak French was the target of opposition attacks, he asked himself: do I really want this job?
There were frequent moments of doubt, Ferguson said Tuesday. But, he assured, each was fleeting, and always his answer was “yes.”
The Conservative government nominated Ferguson, the former auditor general of New Brunswick, to fill the federal position left vacant after Sheila Fraser finished her mandate.
When it was revealed that he didn’t have a working knowledge of French – despite bilingualism being listed as a job requirement – the NDP and Liberals immediately began attacking the choice, with the Liberals going so far as to boycott the vote on Ferguson’s appointment.
“It wasn’t easy, but I knew I was going to go through that. It was my own fault,” the new auditor general said.
In an effort to turn the tide and respect the bilingual nature of the job, Ferguson has been taking intensive French classes for two hours every day, he said following an appearance before the Senate finance committee.
“I’m trying to make sure I don’t cancel any of those. They’re an important part of my day,” he said.
Ferguson dismissed a suggestion that two hours of French class could cut into the time spent becoming familiar with office files, studying past reports and getting to know his staff.
“All the comments I’ve received from the people in the office say they’re happy with the access they have to me,” he said.
Ferguson came onto the political scene under a cloud of controversy, he will have to go forward in a time of austerity.
With government-wide spending and personnel cuts just around the corner, Ferguson’s office will not be exempt.
He told the committee he expects that by 2014-15 he will to have to deal with $6.5 million less than the $84.9-million budget he has for 2011-12, and an approximate 10 per cent decrease in the 633 full-time equivalents he has on hand right now.
The auditor general said he was confident his office would be able to continue offering sound and reliable audits in spite of the cuts.
“We think we can handle that,” he said.
Ferguson’s office presented a cost-cutting scenario to government that considered ending certain audits the office is legally obliged to conduct. Some of those audits, he said, don’t add any value to the output of the office. The roughly 20 audits he believes are disposable were identified following a “rigorous process,” he said.
Cutting down the number of statutory audits would require the government’s help.
“Some of (the cost-cutting) will require legislative changes,” he said. “But we’re not expecting any resistance to that.”
Ferguson wouldn’t offer specifics on which audits he thought were pointless and which departments they affected, but stressed the office would not be giving up the ability to audit the departments in question, just the obligation to do so annually.
Ferguson officially began his 10-year appointment on Nov. 28.
Before arriving in Ottawa, he spent five years as New Brunswick’s auditor general, five years as the province’s comptroller and one year in between as the deputy finance minister.
He said he isn’t worried the controversy will hang over him and taint his work.
“The important thing is the work that the Office of the Auditor General does,” he said. “It’s not about me, it’s not about my legacy.”
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