Auditor calls for better management of gaming grants program

B.C.’s Auditor General is calling on the provincial government to keep better track of how it administers the Community Gaming Grants program.

Every year for the last five years the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development has dished out almost $135 million of gaming revenue among nearly 5,000 not-for-profit groups.

The money makes its way to groups across the province, supporting community programs and events. The program is one of the largest grant programs in the province.

The Office of the Auditor General took a long, hard look at the program, and found it’s generally run well, but that there are several places the government needs to do better.

To begin, Auditor General Carol Bellringer said the government needs to do better monitoring and reporting on the program, to allow the community groups accessing it to see if it is successful, and understand if it is being managed properly.

"We recognize that many organizations depend on this funding," Bellringer said. "But $135 million is a lot of money to give out without this kind of information."

Bellinger also said the government needs to do more to make sure that grant applications are being assessed fairly, and that enough information is recorded so it can justify who it gave money to, and why.

Her report points out that grants have been given under the program even though recipients hadn’t given a report on how they spent the money last year.

She also called on the government to take a step back and consider if the design of the program still makes sense. She points out that the program hasn’t been seriously evaluated since 2011, and the government should be asking if $135 million is the right amount of funding, if more sectors be eligible and if there is a better way to get the money to not-for-profit groups.

"I want to thank the Office of the Auditor General for completing their thorough performance audit of our Community Gaming Grants program. I am pleased that the audit found government has a suitable framework in place to administer the program, and we recognize that improvements are needed in some key areas,” Peter Fassbender, the minister of community, sport and cultural development said, in response to the report.

Prior to the report’s release, the government had already started making improvements in some of these areas.