Handout photo of Gordon Ruth, Auditor General for Local Government, courtesy the province of British Columbia.The province has announced a new auditor general for local government, even as municipal politicians prepare to vote on a resolution calling for the position to be scrapped. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

VANCOUVER - British Columbia has announced a new auditor general for local government as municipal politicians get ready to vote on a resolution that calls for the elimination of the same office.

Gordon Ruth, an executive vice-president with the Chartered Professional Accountants of B.C., will start Oct. 1.

Ruth walks into a post that has been criticized since its creation in 2012 as inefficient and a waste of public money.

Community, Sport and Cultural Development Minister Peter Fassbender made the announcement at the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference, where city leaders will vote this week on whether to ask the government to scrap the position.

Fassbender acknowledged the province's first attempt to create an office to audit local governments had been "fraught with some challenges."

"I would be remiss if I stood up here and said, 'We did a great job out of the gate.' There were challenges," he told the crowd of local mayors and councillors from across the province. "It wasn't a successful start, but we did learn."

The province fired its first auditor general, Basia Ruta, in March after her office had completed just two audits and reports surfaced about an inefficient and unhappy workplace.

Arn van Iersel, a long-time bureaucrat, has been acting auditor general and on Wednesday released the office's seventh audit, which examined Comox Valley Regional District's procurement practices.

Fassbender said van Iersel had already reviewed an independent report on the office and had begun to implement changes.

The minister vowed that the office would work differently with cities in the future, stressing that the auditor's role was to be a partner to local governments.

"The office's job is to work with you, not to be looking for what's wrong, but helping to identify what the opportunities are so we can all move together and forward in a positive fashion."

Ruth has held several public sector positions, including in the federal government, BC Hydro and the Greater Vancouver Regional District, now called Metro Vancouver, where he was chief financial officer.

North Saanich council put forward the resolution calling for the office to be scrapped, saying it has cost taxpayers $5.2 million and is unnecessary because municipalities are already legally required to balance their budgets.

Fassbender told reporters after his announcement that the province would not disband the office even if the resolution is passed.

"I'm not appointing a new AGLG with a view that we're going to disband it. What we're going to do is make it work with the goals that were originally established," he said.

North Saanich Mayor Alice Finall said the personnel change did nothing to alleviate her concerns about the office, which she said the province created without any real basis.

"There really didn't seem to be any clear understanding of why it was being created," she said, adding that B.C. didn't consult with municipalities first.

UBCM President Sav Dhaliwal, a Burnaby councillor, said he hadn't yet scrutinized Ruth's resume but he was pleased to see the incoming auditor had experience in local government.

He said it is too early to judge the auditor's office as about a dozen communities are still waiting to see the results of audits. The UBCM has asked the province to conduct a review in two to three years regardless, he said.

"We're reserving our feedback, our verdict on whether we are receiving value for our money," he said. "We are willing to give ... the auditor general time, opportunity, to really see what's possible."

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News from © The Canadian Press, 2015