Critics blaze away after Liberals fire BC’s Auditor General

British Columbia’s Auditor General is getting his walking papers from the BC Liberals simply for doing his job, says Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald.

In what has some political bloggers calling “a drive-by, ” Doyle was fired Monday morning after days of speculation about his future.

Doyle is being lauded by opposition parties for holding the Liberals’ feet to the fire over such things as deferral accounts for BC Hydro and the BC Rail case. “In the latter, Doyle has been trying to gain access to documents related to the $6 million dollar legal fees that the government wrote off regarding (BC Liberal insiders Dave) Basi and (Bob) Virk,” according to Jeff Bridges’ the Political Insider.

Applications for new applicants must be received by January 25,2013.

The Auditor General is responsible for conducting independent audits and advising on how well government is managing its responsibilities and resources, a role that focuses entirely on the public interest, without interference from politicians.

“Auditor General John Doyle has been relentless in his scrutiny of government, fulfilling the role that he was hired to do,” Macdonald said in a statement released Monday afternoon.  “In the course of his work he shone a light on many examples of BC Liberal mismanagement, and for that, he is losing his job.”

During his term, Doyle exposed misuse of deferral accounts at BC Hydro, lack of monitoring by the BC Environmental Assessment Office of mitigation requirements on holders of environmental certificates, and the failure of government to properly manage BC forest lands. Doyle is also currently investigating the legal fees paid to two convicted BC Liberal insiders in the BC Rail scandal, Macdonald said.

“The Clark government has done almost everything it can to stymie the Auditor General in his efforts to get to the truth about BC Rail, and now they’ve taken the final step,” he said. “They’ve fired him.”

“The Opposition has complete confidence in the work that John Doyle has done and we believe that he should continue in his role as Auditor General.”