Public Account Work Plan 2018

As the new chair of the Public Accounts standing committee it was great to finally have our work plan meeting.  I had been working with the clerk to schedule it since before Christmas but it was delayed due to unavailability of government members.  Here is a summary of the meeting.

Full records of the meeting can be found at the following links:

• Video recording
• Audio recording
• Transcript (PDF)

DECISIONS

1. BLUE BOOKS (Actual Expenditures) – The committee will request that the Auditor General meet with the committee to provide a complete review of the most recently published Public Accounts of the Province of Prince Edward Island (i.e. the “blue books”) and respond to questions from the committee. This will be the committee’s top priority.
2. TRADE BETWEEN PROVINCES – The committee will request that Kal Whitnell of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism provide a briefing on internal trade. This will be the committee’s second priority.
3. HOUSING – The committee will seek briefings on housing from Hon. Tina Mundy and relevant personnel from the Department of Family and Human Services; and from someone to be determined within the community who could discuss housing from a client-centered focus. This will be the committee’s third priority.
4. PERFORMANCE PLANNING – The committee will examine performance reporting as a method of planning and achieving outcomes and its potential benefits in fiscal planning, starting with requesting a briefing from Robert Hughes, Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Stratford, on his experience with implementing a results-based budgeting and performance measurement process over the past several years. This will be the committee’s fourth priority.
5. OPEN DATA – The committee will seek a briefing on open data in government; at the next meeting committee members will put forward suggestions as to who could provide this briefing. This will be the committee’s fifth priority.
6. Other items that the committee will maintain on its work plan for future examination are as follows:
   • IIDI CROWN CORPORATION – a briefing on Island Investment Development Inc, including its legislative budgetary accountability frameworks and the information provided as part of the budgetary process, its loan portfolio, and its operations and activities
   • CONTRACTING OF LEGAL SERVICES
   • CLIENT SERVICE AND REQUEST TRACKING in government – who is responsible for it (is carried out centrally or within each department) and how is it tracked and measured
   • RIM UPDATE – an update on records information management (RIM) efforts arising from recommendations of the Auditor General, from staff of the Provincial Archives
   • LOTTERY LICENSING FEES – the method of charging for lottery licensing fees, particularly an explanation of why they are charged as a percentage of earnings vs. a flat fee
   • SOFTWARE LICENSING – software licensing in government and the future plan for licenses as technology develops and changes
7. STATUS OF AG RECOMMENDATIONS – The committee will also ask the Auditor General to provide an update on the status of any outstanding recommendations from her previous annual reports.