Yukon overspent health budgets: auditor general

The Yukon government has overspent its health budget by millions of dollars over the past two years, which federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser says is not allowed.

In her report on Yukon's Health and Social Services Department, released on Tuesday, Fraser said Yukon's Health and Social Services Department spent more than it was authorized to spend in the past two fiscal years, even though it had received more money from supplementary budgets in both years.

The department "overspent its budget by $1.4 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year and by $3.7 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year," Fraser's report states in part.

That overspending is illegal under Yukon's Financial Administration Act, Fraser said.

"One of the reasons that the department gave us was the cost of services that [were] provided out of territory," she told reporters in Whitehorse.

"These other jurisdictions have up to a year to bill the territory for those services."

But Fraser said the department should not be waiting for invoices, since it knows who is travelling out of the territory for services and should therefore budget accordingly.

Health costs grown by 47%

Fraser said Yukon's health-care costs have grown by 47 per cent over the past five years. Health spending now accounts for 29 per cent of the territorial government's total expenses, she said.

Fraser also took aim at the Health and Social Services Department's lack of planning, saying the department does not even know if it is providing the right programs and services to Yukoners.

Fraser said the department does not have a proper system to collect accurate health data, and that data is incomplete in some cases.

As well, the department is spending money without identifying priorities and it does not have a business plan, the report found.

"The department needs better information to make informed decisions about spending priorities for health care," Fraser said.

"The priorities need to be clear so everyone knows what those priorities are, and there needs to be performance indicators established for the programs so that over time, you can measure if they are being successful."

Fraser has issued a number of recommendations to make the department more accountable, such as implementing a "rigorous process" for monitoring costs, setting up a health data collection system, and preparing a plan to rank and meet its health priorities.

Yukon government officials have told Fraser's office that they agree with all of the recommendations. Fraser said she will likely follow up with the department in three to four years.

"I guess time will tell. An auditor … always kind of reserves judgment until we actually see things have been implemented," she said.