The provincial Auditor General is giving the Health Department and NB Power “F’s” for falling short in a number of areas.
In her report – Kim Adair-MacPherson says the Health Department failed in its oversight of the Electronic Medial Records program to automate doctor office patient records. When the program was terminated in 2019 after 8 years and more than 26 million dollars invested – less than half of the eligible doctors had adopted the plan. She says the department did not effectively monitor the program funding and compliance with agreements.
The Auditor General is also slamming NB Power’s financial management. She says the utility’s “inaccurate financial forecasts have impacted the utility’s ability to meet its own debt reduction target.” Adair-MacPherson says NB Power’s 10 Year Plans constantly move the target date for reaching legislated debt equity ratios down the road that postpone efforts at debt reduction.
NB Power’s debt sits at 4.9 billion dollars as of 2020 and the utility has a debt equity ratio of 94% – the highest debt equity ratio of power utilities across the country.
