While mostly fair, according to the Auditor General of British Columbia, yesterday’s Financial Statement release had some glaring inaccuracies.
A release yesterday by Finance Minister Carole James put the province’s operating surplus at 301 million dollars, a number which the Auditor General’s office claims should be closer to 1.1 billion.
The difference comes from the way the government records revenue from two qualifications.
The Auditor General’s office says that the government doesn’t follow accounting standards when reporting outside revenue, instead using a longer evaluation period which results in under-reporting.
A second qualification relates rate-regulated accounting, which the government has recently applied to BC Hydro and other corporations, but without a proper framework in place.
These errors, according to the Auditor General, obscure the results and make the numbers look less impressive.
