Seven Months Later, Still No Auditor General

Tracy Panton

For the Joint Public Accounts Committee to carry out its work effectively, it needs input from the Office of the Auditor General.  According to Panton, since the retirement of former Auditor General Dorothy Bradley in 2021, her post as an independent auditor reporting on government spending has remained vacant.  The absence of someone in that capacity has severely impeded the work of JPAC.

Tracy Panton, Chairperson, JPAC

“Part of the challenge we have in providing the kind of oversight that is required of this house committee is the fact that we haven’t had an auditor general for seven months and counting.  The work of the auditor general’s office is critical to the work of JPAC.  In fact, while JPAC can look at other public accounts independently of the auditor general, the bulk of JPAC’s role and responsibility is to review and examine and provide recommendations on audit reports or other reports that are sent to the National Assembly by the auditor general’s office.  They provide kind of the technical support for the work and the vision that the JPAC committee is expected to do.  I hope that our next meeting I can enlist the support of the social partners to really seek government’s commitment to appoint an auditor general in short order.  We knew six years ago that the former auditor general was going to be retiring and so we had six years to plan for a replacement.  That has not happened and now we’re almost a year into having that office and that function not operating optimally.  It would have been, I think, more helpful for a call, for the social partners to call for the appointment of an auditor general.  But, given what it is, my colleagues can be assured that I have no difficulty at all in complying with the request.”