The Acting Auditor General of Québec issues the conclusions of his audit concerning the solidarity tax credit - Press Release no. 2

QUEBEC CITY, Nov. 27, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Today, Mr. Michel Samson makes public the report entitled Value-for-Money Audit (Fall 2014). In Chapter 2, he makes known the results from his work at the Ministère des Finances du Québec (MFQ) and at Revenu Québec.

Although the MFQ's forecasts indicated that the solidarity tax credit would result in expenditures in the order of $1.35 billion in 2012, expenditures were actually $1.71 billion.

The MFQ did not analyze the different possible scenarios before choosing how the tax credit works and entrusting its management to Revenu Québec. This exercise would have made it possible to, among other things, identify the risks related to the achievement of objectives and the estimate of implementation and management costs.

The MFQ did not consider all the potential effects of changes made to the chosen parameters. As such, it did not take into consideration the effects of these changes on the number of households that declare being eligible for the housing component. This number has increased from less than 1.2 million to over 2 million of households.

The process put in place by Revenu Québec to administer the tax credit does not include all necessary controls for determining the eligibility of households and for ensuring that the amounts awarded to them correspond to those to which they are entitled. For example, using data from Revenu Québec, 34% of 807,784 beneficiaries who declared they lived alone actually shared their home during the month of March 2013. According to an estimate of the Auditor General, approximately $80 million would have been overpaid for a year. When our audit ended, Revenu Québec was in the process of implementing controls to detect and correct these situations.

The computer system, whose costs were $33.8 million when it was delivered, does not adequately support the work processes related to the solidarity tax credit. In addition, since the delivery of the system, $6.7 million in improvement and upgrading work has been deemed necessary.

Revenu Québec does not conduct a follow-up of management costs of the tax credit because it does not produce the management information that would enable it to do so. In 2013‑2014, management costs exceeded by approximately $3 million those that had been approved. In addition, 192 full-time equivalents were used rather than the 154 initially anticipated.

The Highlights are available at www.vgq.qc.ca. The full report is only available in French.

Source:	Lucie Roy, Director
	Cabinet, communications et affaires stratégiques
	Auditor General of Québec
	Tel.: [phone]

SOURCE: Vérificateur Général du Québec

Lucie Roy, Director, Cabinet, communications et affaires stratégiques, Auditor General of Québec, Tel.: [phone]