Finance and Government Services — Issue No. 12 — Wednesday, October 26, 2005 (HTML)

2005 Legislative Session: First Session, 38th Parliament
SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES
MINUTES AND HANSARD

1. The Chair called the Committee to order at 9:09 a.m.

2. The Chair updated the Committee on the progress of the Sub-committee regarding the Request For Proposal for audit services for the Office of the Auditor General.

3. Resolved, that the Committee meet in-camera to prepare its draft report. (Dave S. Hayer, MLA)

4. The Committee met in-camera from 9:16 a.m. to 11:27 a.m.

5. The Committee adjourned to the call of the Chair at 11:28 a.m.

Blair Lekstrom, MLA
Chair

Kate Ryan-Lloyd
Clerk Assistant and
Committee Clerk

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES

Chair:	* Blair Lekstrom (Peace River South L)
Deputy Chair:	* Maurine Karagianis (Esquimalt-Metchosin NDP)
Members:	* Harry Bloy (Burquitlam L) * Dave S. Hayer (Surrey-Tynehead L) * Gordon Hogg (Surrey–White Rock L) * Richard T. Lee (Burnaby North L) * John Yap (Richmond-Steveston L) * Leonard Krog (Nanaimo NDP) Jenny Wai Ching Kwan (Vancouver–Mount Pleasant NDP) * Nicholas Simons (Powell River–Sunshine Coast NDP) * denotes member present

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Good morning, members. I would like to call the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services meeting to order. We are here to do a number of items on our agenda.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): I would like to begin by varying the agenda somewhat. The subcommittee has met on the issue of the request for proposals for the office of the Auditor General. If it is acceptable to the committee, I would like to deal with that item first.

The subcommittee has met and dealt with the draft of the request for proposals. We went through it with Craig James. We had some questions and a couple of issues that we needed clarification on. We have received that. The draft is now being revised and will be presented back to the subcommittee. It looks like a very sound document, a solid document — very in-depth.

What the committee intends to do, upon the revised draft being put forward to us, is proceed to an RFP through the B.C. Bid site, as well as advertising in the Times Colonist as well as the Vancouver Sun to try and get as broad a coverage as we can.

Are there any questions? Maurine, did you have anything to add on the meeting we had regarding this RFP?

M. Karagianis (Deputy Chair): Maybe I'll just add that the RFP is sort of standard procedure. All the language in that was actually proposed by the Auditor's office, and we did in fact make some alterations to the language to make it more pertinent to this committee's role in the RFP process. Otherwise, I think that everybody can feel comfortable in the fact that the language was all standard language for RFPs of this nature.

It's important, I think, that we try and get this process underway as soon as possible, so that we can actually fulfil the process before the end of this calendar year. So there are some constraints there on time lines. Trying to get the RFP fulfilled and an auditor appointed by the middle of December is the goal here. Hopefully, we'll see that draft document here, and everyone can feel secure in the language around that.

J. Yap: I just wanted to add that to put this in context, this is something that hasn't been done for a few years, because the contract actually has expired. It's a four-year contract. Now we have the opportunity to go out to the market and seek bids for this audit work.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): It would be the intent of the subcommittee, upon review of this revised document, to get it into the hands of each of the members of the committee, but we will try and proceed. Is there any feeling that the full committee needs to be brought back together to deal with the revised draft? I would just look for comment. If there isn't, then your subcommittee will deal with it. But I'll look for comment on that.

L. Krog: No, I don't think it's necessary. I think the subcommittee is perfectly capable of handling that matter on their own.

R. Lee: Are there any opportunities for applicants outside British Columbia?

B. Lekstrom (Chair): I believe this is a full open-tender process. It isn't limited to just British Columbia companies. So certainly it is.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): That's what I was asking, actually. If the committee members would like, we can certainly get it into your hands as soon as we have the revised copy.

D. Hayer: I think that would be a good idea, so that nobody says later on this and that — right? It's much better to see it, and then you go ahead.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Okay. My recommendation would include that when the subcommittee receives the draft document, we will make sure that it has encompassed all of our discussion points and revisions. We will then forward it to each committee member. We will set a time frame on this — 24 hours for review. Failing hearing back from any committee members, we will proceed to put it out publicly. If there are any issues raised, we will as a subcommittee come together again to discuss those issues.

That concludes that, and I do want to thank the subcommittee members. It was quite an in-depth document, and I was very encouraged by the work that the subcommittee did in going through it. I thought it was a very worthwhile process. Like every day, we learn something new.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): With that, we are going to move on to the main portion of our agenda today, which is the review of the preliminary draft report outline and further review of the public hearing, written submissions and on-line submissions. It would be my

wish that this discussion would take place in camera for the simple reason that prior to releasing our public report, this is going to be the full discussion as to what will be in that.

M. Karagianis (Deputy Chair): It does concern me somewhat that some of the comments already are appearing in the newspapers, so I would be fairly cautious here. I haven't seen Les Leyne's article, but I understand from members of the committee that some comments or some quotes are already appearing in that. Again, I'm a bit concerned about the actual in-camera nature of this information, if in fact it's appearing in the press.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): What is in the press is just part of what the public record is right now. It's the transcribed Hansard available too. Our discussions aren't so much based on that. It's on the committee's input as to setting the priorities that we would like to see in this report and so on. I always feel it's more important for the committee, if we are drafting a report and putting it together, that the discussion is here so that the report isn't already public prior to us presenting it to the Legislative Assembly, who we've been asked to report back to.

B. Lekstrom (Chair): Back to the public portion of our meeting here this morning. I want to thank the members for their in-depth discussion on the contents of the preliminary draft report — the recommendations that we will be reviewing at our next meeting.

At this time I'm going to look to members of the committee if there's any other business to be brought before our committee today. Seeing none, a motion to adjourn would be in order.

Hansard Services publishes transcripts both in print and on the Internet. Chamber debates are broadcast on television and webcast on the Internet.



CONTENTS

		Page

Auditor General Financial Statements Auditor		359
Draft Committee Report		359

Committee Staff:	Jonathan Fershau (Committee Research Analyst)

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS (Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES