Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I’d like to ask the Minister of Finance some questions on public accounts practices within this government.
Would the Minister of Finance, maybe just for education purposes, let me know what his perspective is for the purpose of having public accounts within this government? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Finance, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The role of public accounts is an important one. When I became Finance Minister, there was a significant delay in reports being done. The public accounts had sort of fallen out of attention and I made it a point, as the Finance Minister, to meet with the Auditor General, along with the deputy minister. We made the commitment that we would pay attention and we would reinforce the importance of time of reports, that the public accounts was an important function, and then the Legislature, as well, took it upon themselves and the committees to take a much more active role. Some of it had not been done for some time. So, between us we’ve created a renewed emphasis and political commitment to make this part of the budgeting process an important one, and that we’re working hard and we’ve shown success in terms of getting reports done in a timely way. The committee has taken their new authority and they’ve renewed their interest and they’re now taking a much more active role, all of which can only make for a better total budgeting practice. Thank you.
Thank you. I do appreciate the comments that the Minister has made to committee. On my desk I have two public accounts documents that were tabled in this House on February 18, 2013, when we were actually going through our main estimates at the time in terms of making decisions for the ‘13-14 budget. We are spending those dollars right now as we speak, but once that budget process was done, we didn’t get a chance to look at how other dollars were spent in previous years. I’m assured by the Minister that he is trying to get these documents done as soon as possible, but from the recommendations from our last report, what has the Minister done to ensure we do get these financial statements from the government and from our boards and agencies in a timely manner before we sit before our main estimates practice again? Thank you.
This is a process that has some history to it now, as I’ve indicated in my previous answer. I’ve taken this on, along with the deputy minister of Finance, as a critical issue. It’s been pointed out clearly by the Auditor General that we were lacking in this area and we acknowledged that. So, we have the political commitment. We have been working with all of the boards and agencies and government departments to make sure that they know that there is an emphasis on this particular function and that these reports have to get done. We’ve met with chairs and board presidents to make sure that they are clear on this message. It’s been put into people’s job expectations on how they’re going to be measured in terms of the success of their accomplishments of their duties over the year as another way to move this process forward. As I’ve indicated, we have collaboratively and collectively shown some success here. Thank you.
Thank you. We have a tough job here as legislators to ensure that dollars are spent and accounted for and that we’re spending dollars in the proper way, and with a budget and increasing our debt wall, we can spend dollars in a more efficient way. But with that said, we’ve got to understand where those dollars are being spent in the previous year and the years before.
Is there any process in place right now from the government’s point of view for any of these boards or agencies that we work with that don’t get their reporting in on time? Are there any penalties or consequences for them not putting their reporting in on time that helps us make our decisions a lot easier and a lot better for the taxpayer and the residents of the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you. The biggest tool we have is the ones that we are applying and showing progress with. It has become more and more visible as the committee has taken a more active role in reviewing public accounts. Those that are not derelict, but those that are late, those that are tardy, those agencies, boards now have to suffer the scrutiny of not only the Minister of Finance but also of committee, the public, and we’ve put a value on this process. By putting that value on the process we are, over time – a fairly short period of time – getting all the involved boards, agencies and government departments to recognize that this is something they have to pay attention to and give due diligence and attention to.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do commend the work that Government Operations has taken and the initiatives that they’ve taken since being more trained on public accounts.
With that said, is there any type of training that the Minister in terms of Cabinet has for their own departments on making sure dollars are spent properly with keeping them accountable for the work that they’re doing as well? Thank you.
We have to look at the consolidated public accounts process as part of the overall budgeting process where we do business plans, we do reviews, main estimates, and where we spend a full year either getting ready for the budget or cleaning up after the budget and then having a short, very, very short pause before we renew that process.
Once again, we have skilled, trained staff. We have qualified managers and we now have, of course, this clear political direction from this body, from the government, that public accounts have to be paid attention to and it has to be given its due. We are doing that and we have folks that are trained to do this. As the Member has indicated, committee members have had special training, as well, in their role as legislators overseeing this process. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
