The Auditor General of Québec issues the conclusions of her audit concerning information on Investissement Québec's financial profitability and economic performance - Press Release no. 1

QUÉBEC, June 2, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Today, Ms. Guylaine Leclerc makes public the results of her audit at Investissement Québec (IQ).

The criteria for determining whether important financial interventions must be carried out by the Economic Development Fund or IQ are not specific. In fact, some interventions carried out entirely using IQ's equity arise from requests made by government representatives. In those situations, it becomes difficult to differentiate IQ's responsibility and accountability from those of the government.

IQ does not take into account the government's borrowing cost, in accordance with the provisions of its act, when it defines its financial profitability objective. The goal of the 2011‑2013 strategic plan was to progressively gain a level of profitability equivalent to the government's borrowing cost. Since the 2011 merger, with the exception of the 2012-2013 fiscal year, IQ's profitability has been lower than the borrowing cost without any explanation being provided in this regard in the results presented.

The information produced by IQ makes it difficult for both the Company's directors and external users to assess its performance. For example, the results are not presented by activity sector. In addition, more precise information would have made it possible to see that in 2014‑2015, the net result of $96 million included, in particular, $16 million linked to cash and short-term investment assets and a significant adjustment to the allowance for losses.

IQ does not present an adequate picture of the impact of its interventions. For illustration purposes, it indicates that its financial interventions in the 2014‑2015 fiscal year supported projects worth $6.8 billion without specifying that only $1.4 billion was associated with projects generating economic benefits. Similarly, the benefits attributable to IQ are overstated because they include, without any distinction, those of the Business Assistance – Immigrant Investor Program, for which IQ's interventions are limited.

IQ has not achieved the savings objective requested when its activities were merged with those of the Société générale de financement. The administrative costs used to calculate the savings generated by the merger were overstated by $12.7 million compared to actual pre-merger costs. In fact, the savings are negligible.

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