for the year ended December 31, 1999
Financial Statements The Workers’ Compensation Act (the Act) requires that the financial statements of the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) be audited at the direction of the Auditor General by an audit firm appointed, in consultation with the WCB, by the Auditor General. In accordance with the Act, a private sector audit firm completed, at my direction, the audit of the WCB’s
financial statements as at and for the year ended December 31, 1999.
Contract Management In my 1989-99 annual report (page 235), I commented on the need for the Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta (WCB) to improve its contract management of private health care providers used by the WCB.
Sufficient resources must be committed to ensure a rigorous contract review process
Contract management includes defining the roles and responsibilities of the parties, agreement of the measurable expectations to be achieved, effective monitoring and reporting of actual performance in relationship to
expectations, and analysis and subsequent refinement based on results. Contract performance must be monitored, results must be analyzed and corrective action must be taken on a timely basis. This can only be achieved if sufficient and appropriate resources are dedicated to a rigorous contract management process.
Improving contract management is part of the WCB’s strategic initiative relating to risk
management
The WCB is in the process of developing a comprehensive risk management framework, which includes contract
management, as part of an overall strategic initiative. This initiative is included in the WCB’s Five Year Strategic Plan 1999-2003. The WCB has also made some progress in
developing and implementing certain phases of its audit model for Health Care Service, the management of contracts with health care providers.
We will continue to monitor the WCB’s progress on this matter.
Other entities
Financial audits where also completed for the following entities:For the year ended December 31, 2000 Government of Alberta Dental Plan Trust Government Employees Extended Medical
Benefits Plan Trust For the year ended March 31, 2000
Long Term Disability Income Continuance Plan-Bargaining Unit
Long Term Disability Income Continuance Plan-Management, Opted Out and Excluded
Recommendations
Guidance to reader
The Ministry of Infrastructure was created in the government reorganization in May 1999. The reorganization brought the former Ministries of Transportation and Utilities, and Public Works, Supply and Services together.The Ministry is responsible for:
• Providing safe and effective highways within the Province
• Ensuring traffic safety
• Providing facilities to government departments, Crown boards and agencies
• Funding and developing supported infrastructure including educational, health and water management facilities—
these facilities are managed by other organizations such as school boards, health authorities, municipalities and post-secondary educational institutions
• Providing central services to government departments including vehicle fleet operations, accommodation, and air transport
The Ministry is also responsible for the government’s capital planning initiative
The Ministry is also primarily responsible for the cross-government initiative of capital planning. The overall goal of this initiative is to ensure effective, innovative capital
planning and funding decisions. Strategies include an annual corporate overview to facilitate planning, multi-year
infrastructure budgeting, implementing effective infrastructure management systems with common performance measures and the effective management of physical infrastructure.
The following table summarizes the operating and capital expenses and revenues from external sources of the Ministry for the year ended March 31, 2000:
1999
The Ministry owns and manages the majority of the government’s capital assets and provides funding for supported infrastructure
The Ministry is the major holder of infrastructure in the government. The approximate net book value of the government’s capital assets amounted to $7.3 billion at March 31, 2000 (1999 $7.2 billion). Of this amount, the Ministry owns and manages capital assets with a net book value of approximately $5.1 billion (1999 $5.1 billion). The Ministry also funds supported infrastructure such as health and educational facilities. Most of the remaining government assets are held by the Ministries of Environment (primarily land and water management systems) and Community Development (heritage buildings and collections and social housing).
We examined the Ministry’s capital asset management systems and noted the need for improvements
To be successful, the Ministry must have effective capital asset management systems. This year we reviewed the Ministry’s capital asset management systems to determine whether the Ministry has appropriate and sufficient
information to facilitate resource allocation decisions. We found that the Ministry has many of the elements of capital asset management systems in place or is in the process of developing these systems through the implementation of the strategies of the Capital Planning Initiative (CPI). We also noted that improvements to the Ministry’s systems could be made. Specifically, we noted that the Ministry should obtain additional information on strategic program delivery needs to develop long-term capital asset plans for owned and supported facilities, develop processes for monitoring the
implementation of the CPI within the Ministry and review existing plans for the development and implementation of infrastructure management systems.
The Ministry’s progress in developing the
transportation
infrastructure management system was examined
In 1996-97, the Ministry commenced work on its plan to establish a Transportation Infrastructure Management System.
This system is being designed to assist the Ministry in identifying Province-wide needs and priorities for
maintenance and construction of highways and bridges. The successful implementation and use of this system will be critical to the success of the Ministry in future years. We have reviewed the Ministry’s progress in developing the system and in addressing our prior year recommendations.