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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A value-for-money audit on the NWT Power Corporation will have to wait, the auditor general's office has told the government of the NWT.

A resolution to make the request for an audit was passed at the NWT Association of Communities' annual general meeting in May, and it was also supported by regular MLAs.

Jane Groenewegen, MLA for Hay River South, said the auditor general's office did not categorically say it would or wouldn't perform the audit, but it would have to wait because the office only has limited resources in each jurisdiction.

"The auditor general's office said they are considering it amongst other things," she said.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem, president of the association, said the resolution was passed because the increased cost of power was having a significant impact on community operations around the NWT.

"One of the ways of attempting to send a message that it is getting out of hand is to have an authority outside the NWT take a neutral view, which the auditor general can do, to identify if we are getting value out of the money that we are currently investing into the power rate charge," he said.

Kevin Menicoche, chair of the government's priorities and planning committee, said he believed the power corporation was going to the people first to recover costs and was not looking internally for saving measures.

"What we are doing as a government is looking internally," he said. "Why isn't the power corporation going internal?"

The auditor general performs an annual financial audit on various government institutions, including the power corporation.

However, the performance audit requested by the association of communities is different.

Sophie Nadeau, a spokesperson for the auditor general's office, said this kind of audit would deal more specifically with the management of the corporation, as opposed to fact-checking its numbers.

It is not known when the auditor general's office would get to the audit.

Premier Floyd Roland, minister responsible for the corporation, said in the legislative assembly in late October that an in-depth review was being done on the power corporation to look at its structure and operation.

Roland said he hoped the review would go in front of government committees before Christmas.

Van Tighem said he was interested to see what would come out of the study.

"Hopefully what they look at is ... what that money is being spent on and what the real return is to the people that are consuming the power," he said.

Van Tighem also said he would like to see the review address the bonuses being paid to senior management - nearly $600,000 in 2007 - and why investments made into research on alternative power generating methods have yet to bring any return to residents. He would also like to see whether spreading costs across diesel communities more evenly was a viable option to lowering costs in smaller communities.

The auditor general's office sent its response to the government on Nov. 20 but would not release information about it to Yellowknifer.

Nadeau said the policy protects the privacy of those who send the letters.