Yukon government missed deadline to present annual financial report
CBC
The Yukon government was late in filing its annual financial report, and is blaming it on new accounting practices and a lack of experienced staff.
According to the territorial government's own laws, the public accounts are supposed to be filed by the end of October. This year, the government tabled its 2022–23 public accounts on Nov. 22 — several weeks late.
"That deadline really caused an awful lot of stress for the team," Finance Minister Sandy Silver said.
"But they also equalled if not doubled their efforts on the other side of this, to make sure that they are prepared for the next round ... and the public accounts that we'll see this time next year."
While the government isn't facing any penalty for missing the deadline, staff from the office of the auditor general of Canada (OAG) said the delay puts their office behind schedule reviewing the Yukon's books.
The OAG warned the government to address staffing issues in order to avoid future delays.
Public accounts are the government's audited financial statements, along with financial information from government departments, Crown corporations and other bodies. The report for the prior fiscal year is handed annually to the OAG who's responsible for verifying what the government actually spent, and what revenues it took in.
The Yukon Legislative Assembly's standing committee on public accounts heard from the OAG on Friday at a first hearing on the matter, along with officials from the Department of Finance appearing as witnesses.
"The timely availability of the Yukon public accounts is key to ensuring that your committee and the Legislative Assembly have the information they need to hold the government to account for its use of public funds," Normand Lanthier with the OAG said.
Lanthier noted that the delay appeared to be due to "staff turnover and significant difficulties in implementing new accounting standards" that includes more detailed work and disclosure, which increased the amount of labour.
Deputy minister of finance Jessica Schultz, also speaking in front of the committee on Friday, confirmed the reasons for the delay.
"The audit of the 2022-23 financial statements proved significantly more challenging and complex than previous years," she said.
"Compounding the complexity of dealing with these issues was the number of new staff in critical positions across government ... and many were experiencing their first year in government, let alone their first year of the public accounts process."
The committee, however, questioned the government's ability to adapt as the Department of Finance was initially made aware of these upcoming accounting changes in 2018.
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