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Auditor General Sheila Fraser appeared before the standing committee of the Nunavut Legislature on May 6 to discuss the audit of the Nunavut Housing Corporation. - Kassina Ryder/NNSL photo

IQALUIT - There were no surprises in Canada's auditor general's findings when she appeared before the standing committee in Iqaluit last week to discuss her audit of the Nunavut Housing Corp.

Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report, which was tabled in May 2008, revealed the corporation had failed to adequately supervise the activities of local housing associations, and did not plan for "known risks" such as a deficit of construction work being done which resulted in delays, among other issues.

As a result, the report said, the goal of building 725 new housing units throughout Nunavut by 2010 might not be reachable. Fraser said the audit of the housing corporation reflected what has often been found in audits of other businesses in Nunavut.

"I think many of the problems that we saw in this audit, we've seen those in others as well," Fraser said. "Lack of documentation in the files as to how certain things were being done, lack of oversight, poor information about the state of the housing units across the territory, problems with systems. That comes up, actually, quite frequently."

She said many of the problems could be traced to a lack of staff within the corporation. Twenty-three of the 89 positions within the corporation were vacant as of December 2007, according to the audit report. She said a lack of staff is also a common theme in corporations in Nunavut.

Peter Scott, president of the Nunavut Housing Corp., said he was conscious of the problems within the corporation and said staffing was a major issue.

"I had said at the very beginning I could probably have written most of the report and saved them a lot of time and effort," he said. "I'm well aware of the issues and concerns that are out there. I hear them every day. I work with them every day."

Fraser said the government is working on an audit of staffing issues in government departments throughout the territory. The report is scheduled to be tabled in March 2010.