As the federal Integrity Commissioner did in a recent report, and as many good government watchdogs have done in the past, the Auditor General kept secret the names of wrongdoers in his report on the fighter jet purchase multi-billion dollar boondoggle.

The public has a right to know the identity of its employees -- politicians, political staff, appointees or public servants -- who break the rules, and so all the good government watchdog agencies must be required by law to identify exactly which person broke which rule in each situation.

The Conservative majority has prevented the Public Accounts Committee from studying a number of the "left over" reports from last spring. Those deal with such matters as helicopter cost overruns, mismanaged renovations to the Parliament buildings, and the severance paid to the former public sector integrity commissioner.

But the majority has not shut down consideration of the Auditor General's frank and almost brutal evisceration, last June, of the federal government's management of services to First Nations communities.

The call for the creation of an Auditor General for B.C.'s municipalities almost seems like a "no-brainer," doesn't it?

Charlie Smith had a good article in the Georgia Straight outlining reasons why a municipal AG would be a good idea. Some people, in some municipalities, have had problems with transparency. And while the Province does have an "Inspector of Municipalities," this position is useless when someone has an actual problem with local government actions.