Recommendation No. 29 Fines and costs
We again recommend the Department of Justice determine the results and costs of its fines collection activities.
In our 1999-2000 annual report (2000—page 203), we commented on the progress the Department has made towards implementing our 1994-1995 recommendation to determine the results and costs of its fines collection activities. At that point, the Department had not taken steps to implement the recommendation.
Justice needs to measure and report on the success of its collection activities
Each year the Department collects about $100 million from approximately one million fines imposed in Alberta. The majority of the fines collected belongs to municipalities in Alberta or to the federal government, and the balance, which in 2001 amounted to about $20 million in fine revenue and about $9 million in late payment penalties, belongs to the Province. In order to demonstrate the Department’s performance, the Department needs to understand the success of its collection activities. The Department should determine the number of fines levied, collected, outstanding and written off. As well, the Department should determine the costs of collecting the fines in order to determine whether its collection activities are cost-effective or whether alternative strategies might be needed.
The Department should report on the costs of fine collection
The Department has developed two planning documents, which outline an action plan and timelines to develop the required reports.
However, the Department is currently behind in meeting the planned completion dates specified in the action plan. The
Department has also indicated that it will commence gathering and compiling costing information and produce a costing report
sometime during the next fiscal year.
The Department has yet to address the recommendation, but is taking steps to implement it. Considering that it has now been six years since we first made this recommendation, progress has been unreasonably slow.
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Ministry financial statements
We conducted audits of the financial statements of the Ministry and Department of Justice as at and for the year ended March 31, 2001.
My auditor’s reports contain reservations of opinion. Capital assets costing less than $15,000 have been expensed in the year acquired.
The Department did not record a liability for personal injury claims under the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Act that are likely to result in settlement. Also, the Ministry did not record a liability for known recurring payments handled by the Crimes Compensation Board.
Other entities
A financial audit of the Victims of Crime Fund was also completed for the year ended March 31, 2001. Our auditor’s report contained a reservation of opinion because a liability was not recorded for recurring payments arising from compensation awarded by the Crimes Compensation Board.
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Learning
Overview
What the Ministry does The core businesses of this Ministry comprise basic learning (kindergarten to grade 12), adult learning and apprenticeship and industry training. The Ministry consists of the Department of Learning and the Alberta School Foundation Fund.
During 2000-2001, the Ministry spent approximately $4.5 billion.
Of the total expended, approximately $2.9 billion went to school jurisdictions, and $949 million to post-secondary institutions.
Approximately $118 million was spent on support for
post-secondary students. Other than approximately $1.2 billion of school property taxes and transfers from the Government of Canada of approximately $177 million, there were no significant external sources of revenue.
Summary of audit results
Ministry financial statements An adverse audit opinion was issued on the Ministry financial statements because school jurisdictions and public post-secondary institutions were not consolidated.
Systems to determine school jurisdiction compliance with CTS requirements need to be improved
The Department provides approximately $80 million annually to fund Career and Technology Studies (CTS) programs delivered by public high schools in the Province. We examined whether the Department has appropriate systems to determine if school jurisdictions are complying with CTS requirements and to take corrective action where required. We concluded that the Department’s systems should be improved.
Data collection from public post-secondary institutions (PSIs) needs to be improved
The Department uses data from the public post-secondary
institutions (PSIs) to determine whether new programs proposed by the PSIs should be approved, to support funding decisions and to assess the performance of the post-secondary sector. We examined the systems used to collect this data and concluded that the data needs to be collected on a more timely basis and controls improved to ensure that the data collected is reliable.
The capital assets policy statement provided to PSIs needs to be updated
With the substantial investment that has been made in capital assets, it is essential that PSIs identify the funding sources required to maintain and replace capital assets when required. This year we examined whether sufficient guidance is provided by the
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Department of Learning about funding to be provided by the Province. We concluded that the Department of Learning needs to update the previous guidance provided.
Systems to approve and manage construction contracts need to be improved at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology
As a result of projected increases in sector enrolment, especially in certain program areas, providing sufficient access to post-secondary education has become a more significant challenge for the Ministry.
To meet this challenge construction activity has increased within the sector over the last several years. This year we reviewed the systems to approve and manage construction contracts at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. We concluded that the systems could be improved by:
• including a risk analysis in the business case for major projects
• strengthening project management controls
• requiring annual disclosure of conflict of interest for staff involved in procurement and project management functions As the statutory auditor of the public post-secondary institutions each year we perform financial statement audits at these
institutions. We have included in this report some of the
recommendations made at the conclusion of the current year audits.
These recommendations were designed to:
• ensure control weaknesses are identified and corrected at the University of Alberta and University of Calgary
• improve financial processes at Grant MacEwan College
• improve contracting procedures at the Artic Institute of North America and Mount Royal College
Scope of work
In addition to the annual audit for the year ended March 31, 2001 of the financial statements of the Ministry and Department of
Learning, the following work was completed:
Basic Education • an examination of the Department’s systems to assess student performance, record student marks and award funding for the Career and Technology Studies program
• a follow-up of our recommendation on Departmental systems to ensure the planning for the delivery of education is linked to the long-term capital planning for school facilities conducted by the Department of Infrastructure
• a follow-up of our recommendation that the Department improve its monitoring of school jurisdictions as required under the School Act
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• a follow-up on our recommendation to improve the accountability of charter schools
• a follow-up on our recommendation to improve financial reporting and the analysis of academic performance for special needs education
• a review of the results from school jurisdiction audits for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2000
Post-secondary Education • an examination of Departmental data collection systems used to support the approval of new programs, and to assess the performance of the post-secondary education sector
• a follow-up of our recommendation on systems used by the Department to approve deficits of the public post-secondary institutions
• a follow-up our previous year recommendation concerning deferred maintenance
• specified audit procedures on the performance measures presented in the Ministry’s 2000-2001 Annual Report The results of these examinations are reported either under the Basic Education section or, where the examination pertains to departmental systems for public post-secondary institutions, in the Post-Secondary Education section of this Report.