N.S. Auditor General considering audit of personal services contracts

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia’s Auditor General Michael Pickup is looking into whether personal services contracts should be audited by his office.

Personal services contracts were pushed into the limelight after premier Stephen McNeil’s former chief of staff, suggested he could give one to Dartmouth East MLA Andrew Younger’s wife, in a secretly recorded conversation. The Liberals maintain no formal job offer was ever made to Younger’s wife.

Recent news reports prompted Pickup’s office to make preliminary investigations into personal services contracts. “We strive to be relevant, in the public sector, if we decide after doing that initial work that an audit would be beneficial, then we’ll do it. If not then we’ll put it aside,” said Pickup.

His office is gathering information about how often personal services contracts are used and how much they cost taxpayers. Once the information is collected, he’ll determine whether to go ahead with a full audit. Whether the personal services contracts give good value for money might also be evaluated, said Pickup.

“In some cases we may choose to do things where thing aren’t a huge dollar amount but they may be of such significance for other reasons that we may choose to audit something,” he said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "In some cases we may choose to do things where thing aren't a huge dollar amount but they may be of such significance for other reasons that we may choose to audit something," he said.

“Keeping in mind sometimes we audit things to provide assurance to legislators and to Nova Scotians on how things are working, that doesn’t mean we have a conclusion that something is not working,” said Pickup. “It may be to provide assurance that something is actually working well.”

Taxpayers currently pay for 187 personal services contracts. The salaries vary widely from $20,887.88 to $176,205.12.

A decision on whether to launch a full audit will be made by January, said Pickup.