Atlantic Lottery faces joint audit by Atlantic auditors general

Auditors general in the four Atlantic provinces will work together over the next year on a joint audit of the Atlantic Lottery Corporation.

It's the first time all four have collaborated on a project like this.

Atlantic Lotto has a regular financial audit every year, but the last time one or more of the auditors general turned their attention to the lottery corporation was back in the late 1990s.

Instead of an annual financial audit, this will be more like a "value-for-money" audit seen in the auditor general's report every year. It looks at issues like efficiency, accountability, and compliance.

In a joint statement to CBC News, the four auditors general said: "ALC is a large crown corporation essentially owned by all four Atlantic provinces who are the shareholders. It represents a significant source of annual income for each province."

They say there's no particular reason they're turning their gaze toward the billion dollar Crown corporation right now. They also say they haven't determined what aspect of ALC's operation they may focus on.

"We follow a process of broad discovery, identification of risks including areas of potential impact to the organization and its stakeholders, and then determine what lines of enquiry the audit might take," the statement said.

In 2013, ALC executives appeared before Prince Edward Island's public accounts committee to answer questions about the province's investment in Geosweep.

P.E.I opposition leader Steven Myers hopes the audit can turn up more answers than MLAs were able to.

"Lots of things have happened since Atlantic Lotto came before the committee," he said. "But I'd be interested to see the full scope right from the inside, how it came to be, who was calling the shots and what happened to our money."

The auditors general haven't said whether the Geosweep investment will be something they'll focus on.

ALC says it will co-operate fully in the process and looks forward to the results.

Those results will be included in next year's auditor's reports for all four Atlantic provinces.