VICTORIA – The premier’s bungled Auditor General for Local Government project has gone even further off the rails, say the New Democrats.

“Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals have already wasted $5 million of the public’s money on this project,” said Selina Robinson, New Democrat spokesperson for local government. “The legislation they brought in to establish the office was poorly thought out, and we’re seeing the repercussions of that now.”

On Thursday, the office of the Auditor General for Local Government claimed the appointment of yet another auditor to review the AGLG office is illegal.

“As absurd as it sounds, the auditor takes issue with the audit council’s appointment of an auditor to audit the auditor general for local government’s office,” said Robinson. “It’s a mess, and the trail of that mess leads directly back to the Liberal government’s legislation that established the office that no one but the Premier wanted in the first place.”

Robinson said British Columbia already has a very qualified and impartial Auditor General, and that is the office that New Democrats have always said should have been conducting the municipal audits in the first place.

Robinson said it’s ironic that the Auditor General for Local Government suggested the B.C. Auditor General should be the office conducting the review of her own office. In her statement Thursday, Basia Ruta said “the provincial Auditor General would be a qualified and impartial choice.”