Fraud – and secrecy about it – common across some B.C. government organizations

Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act isn't the problem here. It is working as intended, just ask the Federal Liberals. The problem is it is baking in a problem before the law was passed. FRAUD and HORRIBLE communication between ministries. There is some fraud but the vast majority is poor data collection and retention. Standards vary between ministry to ministry and then change from administration to administration.

In other words... snafu?

This is a culture problem that is sadly VERY Canadian. It's why the Brits under Boris Johnson of all people run rings around our climate goals while we are still stuck in committees doing 'fact finding'.

When we can't agree on common data points it makes it very hard to set goals or find fraud.

Back in the late 90's/early 2000's I worked for a company that had a long standing MSO with the BC Government. Orders and projects worked differently with different ministries for sure, especially when it was determined to not be an MSO-related project but one smallish enough to be handled another way. I was on the accounting end of the business and how paperwork and payments were handled also varied. It was frustrating at times.

That's not a bug, it's a feature. Corruption is how governments work. It is the elephant in the room when we want something done we force the square peg into the round hole with enough force. The excess waste finds itself into 'slush funds' and no one is the wiser and no one loses face if it fails.