Finance and Government Services � Issue No. 68 � Wednesday, March 7, 2012 (HTML)

Present: Rob Howard, MLA (Chair); Doug Donaldson, MLA (Deputy Chair); Bill Bennett, MLA; Mable Elmore, MLA; Dave S. Hayer, MLA; Pat Pimm, MLA; Bill Routley, MLA; Dr. Moira Stilwell, MLA; Jane Thornthwaite, MLA

2. The Clerk to the Committee provided a brief overview of the appointment of an audit firm for the Office of the Auditor General.

3. Resolved, that the Committee meet in-camera to deliberate on the appointment of an audit firm for the Office of the Auditor General. (Dr. Moira Stilwell, MLA)

6. Resolved, that the Committee re-appoint Grant Thornton, LLP, of Victoria as the independent auditor of the financial statements of the Auditor General for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. (Doug Donaldson, MLA)

7. Resolved, that Committee task the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Committee to work together to prepare an RFP package for an auditor for the Office of the Auditor General for subsequent years as per Section 23 of the Auditor General Act. (Doug Donaldson, MLA)

The following electronic version is for informational purposes only.
The printed version remains the official version.

REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS
(Hansard)

SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON
FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES


CONTENTS
Page
Office of the Auditor General: Appointment of Audit Firm	1833

R. Howard (Chair): Good morning, Members. We are the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Good morning to everybody.

We have a number of things — hopefully, rather brief items. I understand there was some difficulty with the packages arriving. Some members did not receive packages. I thought what I would ask the Clerk to do is just a brief summary of what's in the package to give you a chance to have a quick look.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Deputy Clerk and Clerk of Committees): Good morning, Members. As the Chair noted, there seemed to have been a bit of a coordination concern with the distribution of the packages tomorrow morning, so I apologize to those members who may be seeing the packages this morning for the first time.

The materials in front of you — I'd like, as the Chair suggested, just to briefly advise you of their contents. Within the first pocket you will note a brief backgrounder summarizing the task that the committee has agreed to meet, review and discuss today, with respect to the appointment of auditors for the Office of the Auditor General.

As you know, it is required under section 23 of the Auditor General Act that the committee must appoint an independent audit firm for each of the fiscal years during a parliament. The last time the committee undertook this process was actually in 2005, when at that time, following an RFP process, Grant Thornton was selected to undertake the provision of audit services on behalf of the committee. The committee extended on a year-to-year basis subsequent to that, subsequent to the 2009 election, the reappointment of Grant Thornton.

We're at a point today that the committee has an opportunity to consider the reappointment for the current fiscal year as well as a plan to proceed for future fiscal years. The backgrounder in the first pocket will outline the elements of that process. We've also included in your package a copy of the Auditor General Act.

In the second pocket you will see a sample of materials related to the RFP that was used previously in 2005 — a sample advertisement that could be used to facilitate that process.

In addition, your package in the remaining sections also includes examples of the reports that were prepared by Grant Thornton. Under the Auditor General Act it's my understanding that there's an obligation that the audit firm would report back directly to the Office of the Auditor General. In some of the previous years I know that the committee also received the benefit of a fulsome report directed back to the committee members for their information. That would be something that I would recommend as a good practice to continue.

Then, as well, we've included in there a sample of the Auditor General's latest annual report. You will see, reprinted within that annual report, on page 52 of that annual report — as is their usual practice — a reprinted version of the independent auditor's report for the fiscal year covered in that annual report. That is a common practice — that Grant Thornton would produce a fulsome report back to the Office of the Auditor General and, as well, that that report would be replicated within the Office of the Auditor General's annual report.

That's essentially a quick overview of the materials you have in front of you this morning. I'd be pleased to answer any questions you might have about any of those documents.

R. Howard (Chair): Madam Clerk, just for the committee, if you could perhaps run through…. On the service agreement between the standing committee and the auditor, Grant Thornton, there is a provision in the fee schedule for two separate reports. I wonder if you could just give us a brief description on the financial statement audit and the annual report audit.

K. Ryan-Lloyd (Clerk of Committees): Yes, Mr. Chair. On page 2 of a document titled "Service Agreement," you will see that there is a summary there of the different fees related to both the financial statement audit, which I believe is the minimum that the act requires; and, as well, the possibility of an additional supplementary audit of the annual report, which would include, as per the document in front of you, about an additional $16,000 worth of audit services in a given year.

It's my understanding that the approach in recent years has been to focus essentially on the financial statement audit work alone, although that certainly would be an option for the committee to consider going forward for this fiscal year and then for future ones as well.

R. Howard (Chair): Any questions so far? If not, there's a part of the discussion I think we should probably conduct in camera, just because of the competitive nature of this.

In front of us is the business of appointment of auditors for the office of the Auditor General. In the package that we had prepared there is a recommendation.

D. Donaldson (Deputy Chair): I do, magically. I move that the committee reappoint Grant Thornton, LLP, of Victoria as the independent auditor of the financial statements of the Auditor General for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.

D. Donaldson (Deputy Chair): I move that the committee task the Chair and Deputy Chair of this committee to work together to come up with an RFP package for an auditor for the office of the Auditor General for subsequent years as per section 23.

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Chair:	* Rob Howard (Richmond Centre BC Liberal)
Deputy Chair:	* Doug Donaldson (Stikine NDP)
Members:	* Bill Bennett (Kootenay East BC Liberal)
	* Mable Elmore (Vancouver-Kensington NDP)
	* Dave S. Hayer (Surrey-Tynehead BC Liberal)
	* Pat Pimm (Peace River North BC Liberal)
	Bruce Ralston (Surrey-Whalley NDP)
	* Bill Routley (Cowichan Valley NDP)
	* Dr. Moira Stilwell (Vancouver-Langara BC Liberal)
	* Jane Thornthwaite (North Vancouver–Seymour BC Liberal)
	* denotes member present
Clerks:	Kate Ryan-Lloyd
	Susan Sourial
Committee Staff:	Byron Plant (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