A Qualified Auditor’s Report into the BC government’s financial statements has resulted in a $9 million increase to the province’s surplus.
Undertaken by the Office of the Auditor General of BC, the report finds the province’s statements were presented fairly, outside three qualifications.
Qualified statements are rare in provincial audits and are issued when auditors find misleading errors, omissions, or financial misstatements.
They found that incorrectly deferred revenue from outside funding contributions led to the province overstating liabilities by $6.48 billion.
A failure to properly disclose contractual obligations, such as contracts below $50 million, also resulted in a $3.45 billion understatement on future expenses.
In addition, they also found the government failed to include $91 million in gaming revenues which were transferred to First Nations in the report.
Three other areas of the report required special attention, but did not result in qualifications.
In total, the errors corrected in the full report, available at this link, totaled the extra $9 million in provincial surplus.
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