N.B. auditor general to launch new audit of help provided to Atcon

New Brunswick Auditor General's report displayed in Fredericton, on Feb.1, 2011. (Keith Minchin / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

FREDERICTON - New Brunswick's auditor general says she will launch a new audit of the financial assistance provided to the now-bankrupt Atcon Group of companies.

Kim MacPherson says the province has been left with $70 million in unrecovered funds and she says she wants answers about where taxpayers money went.

MacPherson says she is in the process of gaining access to Atcon's books and records which are currently in the custody of the court-appointed receiver.

She says she has informed the government that she will need more money to pursue the work.

MacPherson also released a report in which she found the New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation has overpaid the province's seven First Nations $14 million since 2002 because of net profit calculation errors for video lottery terminals.

She says although the problem was found in 2013, the corporation is continuing to make the overpayments at a rate of $172,000 per month.