The Liberal majority on the Nova Scotia legislature’s public accounts committee is being accused of providing political cover for the government after it refused to call recently audited departments to testify.
Progressive Conservative Tim Houston sought to have officials questioned during three open dates in June about issues raised in Tuesday’s report from Auditor General Michael Pickup.
Pickup had himself urged that department officials be brought before public accounts “sooner rather than later” during an appearance before the committee on Wednesday.
Houston was asked why the Liberals voted his motion down, given what Pickup had told the committee.
“Political cover,” he said. “I guess they just don’t want to talk about it because the auditor general’s report made some pretty concerning findings.”
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Among other thing, Pickup’s audit report highlighted what he called “shocking” weaknesses in the Justice Department’s management of its four correctional facilities – finding that some staff were hired without criminal record checks and that policies weren’t being followed in multiple areas, including the segregation of inmates.
But Liberal committee member Gordon Wilson said officials had agreed to move on Pickup’s recommendations quickly, and he didn’t see the need to bring them in immediately.
“I feel very comfortable that his (Pickup’s) report is being dealt with.”
Wilson was asked by reporters whether he had any questions for justice officials.
“I myself personally? No.”
Wilson said a sub-committee would deal with setting the agenda for public accounts later in the summer or in early fall.
“He may have no questions but I have lots,” Houston told reporters.
“It’s not good enough. We need the people responsible to appear before the committee and talk about the findings of the auditor general – what happened, why it happened, where we go from here.”
The Liberals had also blocked a Houston motion earlier this month to have officials from the Internal Services Department appear to discuss what the government maintains was a breach of the province’s freedom of information web portal. It was the third time the same motion was defeated.
Houston said the Liberals are operating on flawed logic when they cite an ongoing audit for not calling Internal Services officials, and then reject an opportunity to discuss a just-completed audit with other departments.
“There’s absolutely no reason that the existence of an audit or the completion of an audit is a reason for a witness not to appear before this public accounts committee,” he said.
NDP member Dave Wilson said a definite trend has emerged with the committee’s Liberal members.
“Today is just another example of them blocking the ability to call departments forward to be accountable,” said Wilson.
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Pickup said it was up to the committee to decide who should appear before it and when.
He said he wants to encourage public accounts to follow up on more of his audits and doesn’t object to witnesses appearing during an ongoing audit as long as they don’t discuss what his office is doing.
Pickup said he wanted his current report to be followed up quickly, precisely because of the commitments that were made by Justice Department officials in their official response.
“They all have timelines. So I’m hoping when fall rolls around and those dates are getting closer … that the public accounts committee will look to call in justice on this audit.”
Pickup’s report also pointed to problems in the collection of millions of dollars in unpaid spousal and child support payments.
It also concluded that three departments – Communities, Culture and Heritage, Agriculture, and Natural Resources – weren’t following up to see what results had been achieved in the allocation of $45 million in provincial grants.