Get tough on 'high-risk' employers: AG report

This year's Alberta auditor general's report calls on the province to get tough on employers with poor safety records.

"A small but high-risk group of employers consistently fail to comply with [Occupational Health and Safety]orders and have disabling injury rates that are higher than the provincial average," said the report, presented by acting auditor general Merwan Saher to the legislature on Wednesday.

It calls on the province to work harder at ensuring the rules are followed by those employers "who persistently fail to comply."

"[The department] didnt have a process to systematically track and look at non-compliance for all of the employers," Ronda White, the assistant auditor general, said at a news conference following the release of the report.

Injury rates well above average

"Those employers that persistently fail to comply with the act actually have injury rates for their workers three to four times higher than the provincial average, so that is significant," she said.

Thereportsaidsome compliance orders were suspended to make the safety statistics look better than they are.

"Employers who choose not to comply withOHS orders may gain an unfair advantage over employers who spend the time and resources to deal with and avoid contraventions," Saher told reporters.

The public should be outraged by the "very serious dereliction of duty," said Liberal Leader David Swann.

The auditor's findings were not contested by Employment Minister Thomas Lukaszuk, who said things will change when it comes tounsafe workplaces.

"We will identify those individuals who are causing us the most problems," he said, "and we will focus on it."

The report also called for better supervision of companies that employ peace officers, especially when it comes to complaints against those officers. The Solicitor General's Department needs more rigorous audits and better documentation, the report said, but addedit did not find "any evidence that public safety is at risk."

ATB modernization 'over budget, behind schedule'

Alberta Treasury Brancheswas taken to task over a project to modernize its banking systems. The report said the ATB's core project"is significantly over budget and behind schedule," and recommendsthat a new plan is drafted and better information provided to the Alberta TreasuryBoard.

"The governance and project management over ATB's new banking system implementation has been ineffective," Saher said.

"If you are using public money, you should always know the actual state of your project."

Another key recommendation is that the province keep a close watch on public-private partnerships established in 2007 to build 18 new schools.

The report said thecontract was awarded appropriately and the process was "fair and open," but called on the departments of the Treasury Board and Infrastructure toprovide reports ensuringtaxpayers they're getting value for their money.

Credit card concerns

The auditor general's department also took aim at how senior management at Grant MacEwan University are using their credit cards, citing a dinner bill of $1,200 for 14 staff at a planning retreat. But Saher said there was no way to say whether the costs were acceptable in the absence of a control system.

"The purpose of a system is to ensure it's not abused. The system isn't fully functioning, so it's not yet good enough," he said, calling on the university to establish clear guidelines and enforce them.

"If people comply with the system," he said, "any abuse will be caught and will in fact, be avoided."