Audits not done at Office of the High Sheriff for past 4 years

Newfoundland and Labrador's auditor general is flagging a problem she's had doingwork to review the Office of the High Sheriff: its financial statements haven't been audited for the past four years.

"The Office of the High Sheriff is responsible for the judgment enforcement registry, and they have trust accounts, and we audit them on an annual basis," Auditor General Denise Hanrahan told CBC News.

"We haven't been able to complete our audits for the fiscal year ends of March 31, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021."

Hanrahan said the required documents haven't been made available for her staff to do that work, and acknowledged it's an unusual situation.

Hanrahan said progress has been made in recent months, and they hope they will be substantially caught up with getting these audits done by this time next year.

"The issue is the risk of undetected errors," Hanrahan said.

"There's a lot of transactions that would occur with the judgment enforcement registry, and so it's important to know that everything is fine."

Neither the high sheriff nor the Department of Justice provided comment in response to CBC messages on Tuesday.

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