The chair of the Vancouver board of education doubts that an ongoing government-ordered forensic audit will turn up anything bad. Mike Lombardi said trustees and staff are cooperating fully with Peter Milburn, who was appointed by Education Minister Mike Bernier to scrutinize the school district.

A forensic audit is commonly understood to mean a review when there is legal concern about an entity’s finances. Milburn, a former B.C. deputy minister of finance, is due to submit a report on September 30.

“We are very confident,” Lombardi told the Straight in a phone interview. “We have extreme faith in our professional staff. We think we’re providing good leadership [as a board], good oversight, good financial management, and we don’t think they’ll find anything. But, you know, the terms of reference allow them to look under every stone to see what they can find. So, good luck.”

Instead of firing Vancouver school trustees, Bernier ordered an audit after the board refused to approve a balanced budget for school year 2016-2017. District staff had to find a total of $28.1 million in administration, maintenance, and education services to cut in order to balance the budget.

Even though a majority of the trustees voted against the budget, the law requires the district to implement a balanced budget, which means that the cuts have gone ahead.

Board member Stacy Robertson noted that based on the terms of reference drawn up by the province, the current audit looks at the way trustees discharge their functions. However, Robertson pointed out that elected school boards are different from boards appointed by the province.

“It’s not like…B.C. Hydro or anything…that, really, the government appoints the people and can go in and sort of dictate how it operates,” Robertson told the Straight by phone. “It doesn’t really have the power to dictate how it [the school board] operates. It can offer some guidance. It can do a report, so I’m always interested to see…if they have suggestions how we can do it better, assuming there’s something wrong.”