Health audit a positive one in Region

The Sunrise Health Region received a verbal account of its most recent financial audit last week.

The audit process began months ago with the files being converted from essentially a paper filed portfolio “to an electronic file,” said Darcy Spilchen with Collins Barrow the firm which has carried out the Region’s audit since the Region was formed.

The conversion was completed by fall 2105, and testing of data for the current audit was carried out into January, with the actual audit being complete and the report written by the end of April.

Spilchen called it “a standard report” based on “… a clean audit opinion.”

In general terms Spilchen said “year over year they are really comparative.”

The one area of notable variance was in terms of equity which was lower based on capital funds where less investment was made.

“There wasn’t much in significant capital projects,” said Spilchen, adding that resulted “… in a drop on overall equity in the region”.

The result is $5 million less equity in capital assets.

In terms of how numbers are recorded, Spilchen said there was also a mandated change in how accursed overtime and similar liabilities for earnings of in-scope staff, and that was reflected in the latest audit.

Beyond the numbers the audit also reports on the Region’s Compliance with Legislation.

“That one is a clean report with no variations,” said Spilchen.

There does remain a concern in terms of internal controls of the Region, said Spilchen.

“Ultimately, there’s just the one matter there … that is the disaster recovery plan,” he said. Spilchen said it has been an area of concern that is being worked on, but more is needed before it falls out of audit reports.

“Some progress is being made,” he said.