Auditor general faces scrutiny of his own after a dozen departures from his office

New Brunswick's auditor general, the province's top fiscal watchdog, will come under scrutiny himself next month over the departure of a dozen staffers in his office.

Green Party Leader David Coon says he plans to question Paul Martin about why so many people have left.

Former deputy auditor general Janice Leahy and two senior auditors are among the 12 no longer with the department.

"It sends a negative message to the public and to all MLAs that this legislative officer has made these decisions that raise a lot of questions about motivation," Coon said.

"Why would he undermine the strength and expertise and resources within his office at a time when he's got so much work to do? It makes no sense." 

Through a spokesperson, Martin confirmed that 12 people have left since the start of 2023.

Nine new people have been hired, including a new deputy, Deidre Green. 

The 12 departures represent more than one-third of the 32 employees who now work for the auditor general.

Martin is scheduled to appear at the legislature's public accounts committee on Sept. 7 to present the first of two audits of the Higgs government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic — a period when he was working directly for the province.

His committee appearance was scheduled for June but was postponed until July and then postponed again.

Coon said this raises even more questions about the timing of the three firings.

"Is it a coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. But there's lots of questions to ask about that."

Martin said in June that the COVID report was postponed because "these are complex audits and sufficient time is needed to finalize this work."

Martin refused an interview request, and in an emailed statement would not explain why so many people left his office. 

"The office does not comment on specific human resource matters," he wrote.

Leahy did not respond to an interview request sent by email and left on her home voicemail.

She served as acting auditor general for part of 2021 before Martin was appointed to the position to replace Kim Adair-MacPherson.

Leahy also took the lead on some audit reports released after Martin's appointment because they scrutinized government programs he monitored in his former role as comptroller, an internal watchdog position in the Department of Finance.

In 2021 a former auditor in the office, Brent White, urged the Higgs government to recruit the new auditor general from outside the civil service.

White argued that hiring auditors general from within the government risked compromising their independence, violating key tenets of the accounting sector's professional standards. 

Martin is the third consecutive auditor general appointed from within the civil service.

Higgs said in 2022 that when a hiring committee recommended Martin, he raised the independence issue himself but was assured that files he handled as comptroller would be "treated independently … so you're not reviewing your own work."

Martin was recommended by a selection committee made up of the clerk of the executive council, the clerk of the legislature, a judge and a university vice-president. 

He told CBC News when he was appointed he would recuse himself from audits that touched on his own previous work as comptroller.

"You just have to use your professional judgment and know when that turns into an actual or perceived conflict and when are the right times to back out," he said.

Coon said he'll raise the departures with Martin at the committee meeting in September.

"I'll have lots of questions for him as to why he made these decisions and what was the motivation, because we're talking about very experienced staff people, very senior staff people."