AUDITOR J GENERAL December 16, 2014 ee Confidential ‘Ms. Rachel Notley, MLA ena Edmonton-Strathcona Leader of the New Democrat Opposition samara 230 Legislature Annex: races Edmonton, AB TSK 1E4 vaya Dear Ms. Notley: ‘Thank you for your: + December 3, 2014 letter that requests an audit ofthe governments planning processes for health care infrastructure + November 5, 2014 letter that requests an audit ofthe expenses of each member of Premier Redford’s cabinet have responded to both of your requests below. Health care infrastructure ‘We have read the Edmonton Journal's series entitled “Critical Care” and are aware of the nature of the concerns raised in those news articles. My office's 2015-16 business plan includes an audit ‘o examine the Government of Alberta's capital planning processes. The processes are led by the Department of Infrastructure with input from other departments, including the department of Health. As part of our capital planning audit, we will examine processes used to produce the health component ofthe government's broader capital plan. This work will include processes to determine new capital funding as well as maintenance funding for existing health facilities. We ‘will assess in our audit the quality of information used to make decisions and to report publicly on infrastructure management. Expansion of audit scope ~ Special duty report on the expenses of the Office of Premier Redford and Alberta's Air Transportation Services Program. ‘We evaluated your request by considering whether there would be additional value that could be added by conducting an audit of ministers’ expenses and aircraft usage given the work we hed already completed as part of our special duty repor. In our special duty report we recommended improvements to the government's travel, meal and hospitality expense policy. We also stated that Treasury Board should establish a better process to provide oversight of the Office of the Premier's expenses, and consider what type of oversight bbe used for the expenses of ministers’ offices. We also made recommendations related to the ‘Air Transportation Servis program. The government subsequently announced its intent to sell the aircraft.‘The department of Treasury Board and Finance has indicated itis currently updating the sovernment’s expense policy and improving expense oversight systems for the emir and rinistrs inorder for Albertans to have well designed systems whose operational effectiveness will be continually confirmed. Going forward, we will examine the Premier's ané minister’ expenses annually. If anything significant is identified through those reviews we wll report those. matters publicly Given these system improvements and the announced intention to sll the airera, we have concluded the likelihood of us generating added value for Albertans in the form of new and different recommendations is insignificant. Therefore, we will not be spending further audit dollars on expanding the scope ofthis summer’s special duty report. ‘Thank you for raising your concerns with me. I appreciate recelving input from MLAS regarding the work of my office. Yours truly, /4.N. Sher ‘Merwan Saher, FCA, Auditor General Bika File ref: ARI4-171 and ARI4-191