The Yukon government has responded to concerns over findings in a recent audit.

Representatives from several departments held a press conference Tuesday morning to answer questions on the Auditor General of Canada’s report on government transfers to societies that was released Monday.

One of the key concerns was a Yukon Party government’s controversial $750,000 deal with the Mountain View Golf Club in 2011.

The transfer of that money to the club could not be audited because it was classified under “other expenses” which has no policy requirements.

The fund was initially listed as a government transfer. It was later moved into the more ambiguous “other expenses” category.

The Departments of Finance and Community Services explained that due to a clerical error, the fund was “erroneously” marked as a transfer payment agreement when it should have been a contract.

“Through our monitoring process, we identified that mistake,” said Clarke LaPrairie of the Department of Finance.

The “other” classification is used for spending that doesn’t fit within established categories such as travel, maintenance or insurance.

LaPrairie said this category is used all the time, often when operational documents are contracts.

“This is the first time I’m aware of a significant item where we identified the original one was a transfer payment erroneously and we had, for the purpose of making sure the government’s books are accurate, reclassified it as a contract after the fact,” he said.

But concerns were raised over the public’s ability to hold the government accountable when it comes to these expenses.

“The unfortunate nature of this error is there’s a different process for reporting a contract and for reporting transfer payments and the order in which the error was corrected it did not show up on the contract registry or the public accounts on that year,” explained LaPrairie.

When pressed on the potential for corruption, he said, “We have duties and responsibilities as public servants, and that’s the whole nature of Westminster systems.”

In an interview with the Star Monday afternoon, Casey Thomas, the principal for the Auditor General, said ideally, government funding should be backed up by policy.

“Government expenses should all fall within the accountability framework; there should be rules that need to be followed in order to make payments,” she said.

“In this case, there aren’t any, so I think the government should consider whether or not that’s something that would be useful for them with this expense category.”

But when government representatives were asked if there are any plans to add policy requirements under the “other expenses” category, the answer was a clear no.

While the payment could not be audited, the report did find that it was “properly authorized from a financial perspective.”

“They’re just making a statement of fact; they’re not really implying that’s anything untoward,” said LaPrairie of the finding.

“All they’re saying here is there’s no specific policy for this type of transaction.”

Ted Laking, the chief of staff for the now-official Opposition Yukon Party, released a statement in response to the issue.

“At the time of this decision in 2011, none of our caucus was in government.

“I do take note of the Auditor General’s findings that in this instance everything was properly authorized from a financial perspective.”

(Current caucus member Brad Cathers was sitting as an independent at the time of the Yukon Party’s $750,000 payout to the golf club after having had a falling-out with then-premier Dennis Fentie over the question of whether to privatize Yukon Energy.)

Department representatives said the findings from the audit were not surprising as the government completed internal audits in 2007 and 2010.

As well, improvements have already been made, including training, new databases, and a monitoring policy program in the Department of Finance.

“This report is night-and-day different from those internal reports; they don’t really give us kudos,” said LaPrairie.

“I know everyone is fixated on the golf course, but this is actually a pretty good news story audit, and yes, we still have some work to do and we accept it.”

The Departments of Community Services, Economic Development, Energy, Mines and Resources, Finance, and the Executive Council’s Office have agreed with all of the report’s recommendations and plan to implement them by April 1.

An audit committee with deputy ministers from several government departments will be responsible for making sure these recommendations are put into action.

Laking stated: “We are encouraged that the government has indicated it will accept the recommendations from the Auditor General’s report, and we look forward to holding the government to account to ensure timely implementation.”

The Yukon Party government faced many questions in the legislature over its $750,000 transfer to the golf club at the time. The opposition accused the government of buying back a piece of land it already owned – with the golf club pocketing the money.

As well, a major competitor of the golf course questioned why so much taxpayers’ money had been quietly transferred to a single private-sector organization.

See related story.