The Yukon Party government yesterday quashed a last-ditch attempt by opposition benches to have Auditor General Sheila Fraser appear before the legislature's committee of the whole next Wednesday.

Fraser will arrive in Whitehorse that day to deliver her audit for the Department of Health and Social Services, whose budget accounts for a quarter of more than $1 billion in annual government expenditures.

Asked to debate NDP Leader Liz Hanson's motion to have Fraser present her report to lawmakers in a public setting, then take questions, MLAs on the government's side of the house denied further deliberation.

Instead, Fraser will offer her report to the media and prior to that for MLAs in a closed-door session.

And during Tuesday's question period, Premier Dennis Fentie dodged Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell on the same subject, then tried to blame Mitchell for Fraser's inability to address the government on her most recent findings.

"This leader of the Liberal party is actually the chair of the public accounts committee, the very institution that the Auditor General is to appear before,” charged Fentie. "Why doesn't the Liberal leader stand up and tell Yukoners why he's not doing his job and why he wants to fob it off on this assembly?”

But Mitchell told the Star he arranged a time for Fraser to appear before public accounts, was informed by the Auditor General's office she could be available on the afternoon of Feb. 15, but that government members, who form the majority on the committee, stonewalled him.

"We're having a farewell dinner for her, but we're not having her come in and so we can ask questions,” said Mitchell of planned events to mark Fraser's last visit to the territory, as her 10-year mandate as Canada's spending watchdog is set to expire later this year.

Fraser has never appeared before the Yukon's legislature. However, both Mitchell and Hanson insist that their failed attempt was not political.

Hanson suggested that the government was trying to run interference by having Yukon Hospital Corp. chair Craig Tuton and CEO Joe MacGillivray appear before the committee of the whole during Fraser's visit.

On Monday, the government informed the legislature that both men would take questions from the committee on Feb. 15, the same day Fraser intends to release her report.

"It's been like pulling hen's teeth previously to have government agree to have these guys appear, then all of a sudden it becomes an absolute imperative to cram these two guys for the day Fraser is here,” said Hanson. "This seems like a diversion to me.”

Last year, the Yukon Housing Corp. received a largely positive appraisal from Fraser for its operations and spending, but Fraser's audit of the Education department, released in January 2009, gave that department a failing grade.

Fraser was also highly critical of the government's botched $36.6-million asset-backed commercial paper investment, which the Auditor General determined contravened the Yukon's Financial Administration Act.

And for the past two years, spending in the Department of Health and Social Services has overshot budget estimates by tens of millions of dollars – in 2010 by $27 million and in 2009, by $12 million.

The government has also been criticized by opposition parties for committing to build two hospitals – one in Dawson City and another in Watson Lake – at a cost of $50 million, funding for which the Yukon Hospital Corp. must borrow from the banks.

In a 2007 Auditor General's report on the Yukon's transportation capital and property management program, Fraser cited poor project management for proposed multilevel care facilities in both communities.

Both proposed care facilities have since morphed into full-blown hospitals, and construction on each is already underway in Dawson City and Watson Lake.