The Alberta Auditor General (AG) has determined the government is engaging in effective processes, controls and reporting on its programs and services for the benefit of all people, but improvements can be made. “I am pleased to report to Albertans that we have issued a clean audit opinion on the Province’s Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended March 31, 2023,” said Alberta Auditor General Doug Wylie in a Thursday press release. “Albertans can be confident that the financial statements of the province are free of material misstatements and are presented fairly in accordance with public sector accounting standards.” Wylie said there were seven areas where the government could improve. While Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors has processes to ensure fair, competitive procurement of its construction tenders, the AG said not all of these processes are effective and improvements can be made. The recommendations it offered Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors were improving its controls to ensure solicitation posting periods comply with trade agreement requirements, instate adequate controls to document its support for its shortlisting and awards decisions and improving its access controls for its procurement information systems. It acknowledged construction contracts are often in the millions of dollars and are significant for Albertans, the ministry and its proponents, who spend time and money in developing their submissions and rely on and expect fair, competitive procurement processes. In 2021, the Alberta government used federal funding to create the Alberta Jobs Now Program as part of the Alberta Recovery Plan. The AG said Alberta Jobs, Economy and Trade had effective processes to design, deliver and monitor the first application intake of the Alberta Jobs Now Program. It added improvements could be made to the reporting process. When it came to verifying various expenses of the Alberta premier, cabinet ministers and staff, it said Alberta Treasury Board and Finance had effective processes from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. Alberta Advanced Education could improve its financial consolidation process. Without a strong, sustainable financial reporting process over Advanced Education’s consolidation, management and those charged with governance will not have reliable financial information on which to base its decisions and to show accountability to Albertans. The Alberta Agriculture Financial Services Corporation could improve the process to ensure compliance with AgriInsurance policies and procedures. Non-compliance with policies, procedures and authorities could result in invalid, incomplete and inaccurate insurance payments or legislative non-compliance. Alberta Environment and Protected Areas could ensure underpayments to the Technology Innovation and Emissions Reduction (TIER) Fund are collected when errors are found. If Alberta Environment and Protected Areas does not make this change, it might be unable to collect amounts owing to the TIER Fund, affecting emissions reductions and climate adaptation efforts. It could improve financial information preparation and reporting processes. Without effective and sustainable financial reporting processes, management might have unreliable information to base decisions on and the risk of providing late, inaccurate details to suppliers increases. Wylie concluded by saying the AG's work “provides Albertans with assurances that the government programs, processes and services we audited are working as intended.” “Our findings and recommendations help improve performance and promote accountability within government,” he said.
