Delta will be one of the first municipalities to face audits from the provincial government in the coming year.
The Auditor General for Local Government (AGLG) Basia Ruta and her office will be auditing the Corporation of Delta to ensure the municipality is “achieving value for money in operational procurement.”
Delta will be audited for cost containment alongside Vernon, Revelstoke, Comox Valley, Fraser-Fort George, and West Vancouver.
Mayor Lois Jackson has expressed hesitation over the provincial government’s decision to audit many of B.C.’s municipalities, stating that the AGLG office will be “using a tremendous amount of provincial money to look at all the cities and municipalities and towns all across this province.”
Jackson said she is concerned the provincial government may be on a “fishing expedition,” searching for things to fix rather than looking at the bottom line.
“In my entire career, every auditor has to come away finding something negative,” she said. “That’s their job. Is that a good thing for the public? I don’t know. Is that a good thing for our staff? Maybe. But I think we’ll have to wait and see, being the guinea pig of the exercise.”
However, she expressed that it is too soon to tell how the government will proceed with the audit and only “time is going to tell what this process will bring forward.”
Audit work is expected to begin soon and is expected to be completed and reported by March 31, 2014.