On September 10th the government dominated Public Accounts Committee refused Auditor General Wayne Strelioff's recommendation that he be appointed the auditor of record for the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee. "Auditor of record" is the official auditor for an organization. There may be other auditors involved, but the auditor of record provides the official opinion on the organization's financial statements. BC's Auditor General can be appointed as "auditor of record" for many different organizations.

The attempt to keep the Auditor General away from the Olympic Committee is only the most recent example of the Campbell government attempting to hide from accountability and making it more difficult to be monitored. It has cut the budget for the Ombudsman, cut the budget for the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Commissioner, fired the Children's Commissioner, fired the Advocate for Children and Youth, fired the Mental Health Advocate, denied the existence of the Official Opposition and put over $6 billion in the hands of appointed health authorities who refuse to provides details on how they are spending the money or what programs are being cut. Campbell was elected with 77 of 79 seats in the legislature but no one gave him the right to shut down all mechanisms for holding his one man show accountable to the public. When confronted with that charge, his apologists flippantly respond that the public will get their chance at the next election. That misses the point - good government requires constant surveillance, it needs to report to the public continuously and honestly.

Terry Wright, VP of Bid Development and Domestic Operations, suggested to the Public Accounts Committee that the Olympic Organizing Committee might save money if a private sector auditor was selected to do the Committee's audit in exchange for being identified with the Olympic logo. The idea is that reflected glory could help to reduce an annual audit fee that might reach $1 million per year for 7 or 8 years! Just think how willing a private audit firm would be to expose waste and wrong doing if its compensation depends in part on the reputation of the Vancouver Olympic Committee, the organization it is auditing! Perhaps Enron's former auditors will be sent a special invitation to bid for the work. With thinking like that, how long can it be before Campbell's toadies tell the Auditor General to sell pencils on the street corner in order to finance its scrutiny of government?

Perhaps the government was really concerned when Strelioff said:

"I also think that there needs to be examined a number of significant management and accountability practices, which would be essential for successful games, such as: the procurement process in terms of contract management; the controls over corporate sponsorship; capital project management, as there are many capital projects that are part of this bid or this now games production; the marketing plan and program for the games; and the governance issues to make sure that who is making decisions is clear, and there's good, strong public accountability on what's going on."

"Of course, at the end of the games, we think there needs to be a post-audit on comparison of what was planned and what actually happened, and what are the anomalies and lessons learned. So we do plan to propose and gain support for an active program of examinations and monitoring as these games proceed."

If Gordon Campbell and his 75 clones think that they can prevent the Auditor General from protecting the public interest, then they had better listen carefully to Arn van Iersel, the Comptroller General. The Auditor General acts independently and reports to the legislature; the Controller General reports to the Minister of Finance but by nature of his position is viewed as being virtually independent. Van Iersel advised the committee that "…notwithstanding what is decided in terms of the auditor's record, that doesn't prevent Mr. Strelioff from auditing other aspects of this. The auditor's office will be the auditor in terms of the provincial funds that flow to this committee. That includes, as this project develops, any implications in terms of guarantees."

Of course, the province is on the hook for unlimited guarantees for any and all cost overruns. It would appear that government backbenchers may be able to frustrate the Auditor General but they cannot stop him. Keep your eye on what they do to his budget in order to slow him down.