'Unusable' N.W.T. child and family services audits included recommendations to the minister

The Northwest Territories government is refusing to release the results of an audit into how child and family services are being run in the territory, even after the minister of health acknowledged that audits he characterized as unusable in fact produced several recommendations for improvement.

Conducting the audit was a key recommendation by the federal auditor general in his scathing 2014 report, which found child and family services workers in the territory were not following key procedures to keep children safe, such as properly screening foster parents and following up on reports of children at risk.

• Audit finds two-thirds of N.W.T. foster homes not screened

Officials say the 2015 and 2016 audits were a way to ensure departmental staff were following those essential procedures.

But the audits have never been released to the public.

A software malfunction

On Jan. 19, Health Minister Glen Abernethy, child and family services advisor Andy Langford and deputy minister Debbie DeLancey made a presentation to the legislative committee on social development about the audit.

During the presentation, Abernethy refused multiple demands by MLAs to release the results.

"As you know from when you were a regular MLA our job is to provide oversight," MLA Julie Green said during the meeting. "I can't say that I'm totally comfortable that we can't even look at the 2015/2016 audit results."

Abernethy explained that the majority of the results were unusable because of a software malfunction with the auditing tool.

• N.W.T. Child and Family Services audits are unusable, after computer system crashes

"I know the member is not going to be pleased with my response. It would actually require us to go back and do a significant amount of work to reestablish and recreate what was there," Abernethy said.

"I'm not prepared to have staff go back and do this work."

'My conclusions are not good'

However, documents and internal emails obtained by the CBC show the 2015 audits had been completed several months prior to the presentation.

Department staff had even compiled the results and created a final report that included a number of recommendations on how child and family services in the territory could be improved.

CBC has obtained copies of those audit results through an access to information request. However, the territorial government redacted almost all of the information in the reports.

While it's unclear what those recommendations were, internal emails from Langford suggest the audit results were concerning.

"I have been mulling over the results of the annual audit and my conclusions are not good," Langford wrote in an email to other top health officials on August 16, 2016.

"Taken at face value, our measures of compliance are arguably worse than they were three years ago when the [auditor general] completed his audit. This is not a comforting result."

According to Langford, it's unclear whether the results reflect work not done, or work not recorded for the purpose of the audits. Internal emails suggest that's one of the problems with the audits overall.

'Areas in need of improvement'

Abernethy himself acknowledged weaknesses with his January presentation in a letter to MLAs sent a week and a half later to "clarify any potential misunderstandings."

That letter was not released to the public or the media.

"It is unfortunate that much of our discussion, and the ensuing press coverage, focused on the shortcomings of the audit process," Abernethy wrote.

"What we did not discuss last week is the qualitative information also collected in the audits This qualitative information confirmed what the quantitative data hinted at: there are areas of current practice that are in need of improvement."

Abernethy also sent MLAs a copy of that final report, which included recommendations. That report has never been released to the public and, when it was obtained by CBC through an access to information request, was almost completely redacted.

The CBC has asked the territory's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Elaine Keenan-Bengts, to review the territorial government's censorship of the audits and final report.

That review is expected to be completed by January.

Minister Glen Abernethy'soffice declined a request for an interview, referring CBC to the Department of Health and Social Services for comment. A department spokespersonoffered to comment on Thursday or Friday.

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