The auditor found wildly inaccurate assessments, delays of more than three years in assessing new properties, unacceptably long delays in routine reassessments, sloppy contracting practices, a computer system that cost nearly three times the estimated amount and the usual money squandered on wining and dining.

You're paying for all of this through your property taxes, and the inaccurate assessments mean some people are paying far more in taxes than they should and others far less. It's a reality in sharp contrast to the spot-on scientific accuracy and high level of efficiency that MPAC describes in its annual report.

MPAC's most important function is to get the assessment on your house right. To do that, MPAC says its computer looks at 200 variables. The goal is to estimate the price the house would fetch in the market. One would have thought the actual selling price would be an excellent indicator, but MPAC has been blithely unconcerned about the difference between selling price and assessed price.

The auditor looked at 11,500 house sales and compared the sale price to assessed value. One in eight was out by more than 20 per cent. No one expects the process to be perfect, but one in eight that far out of whack?

The corporation had not investigated the reasons for the discrepancies or made any adjustments. MPAC says there is a requirement to do so, but it doesn't seem to be widely followed. As in not at all.

As a government-created corporation, MPAC is one of those quasi-businesses that doesn't have to bother with things like getting the best price from suppliers, proper invoices or sticking to estimates.

The corporation boasts of its computing expertise, but the auditor tells a different story. The provincial government used to use its own computer system to do the work, until it dumped the task on municipalities. MPAC has been struggling for a decade to replace that computer capability and the auditor says it hasn't quite managed the feat yet, despite spending $51 million.

The auditor's report identifies many of the hallmarks of a poorly run organization. There are no systems to measure productivity, property-inspection data is of dubious accuracy, and the agency is so slow to assess new property that some people are getting a tax holiday, and this despite the fact that MPAC has three years to get new properties on the tax roll. MPAC is supposed to physically inspect properties once every 12 years, although the auditor says it's more like 18 years at best.

A new computer system that was supposed to cost $18.3 million came in at $50 million. MPAC defends that piece of incompetence by saying "the system works." You'd hope so, for that kind of money.

In its defence, MPAC says "our customers have accepted our valuations 97 per cent of the time." No doubt the ones who are grossly underassessed will accept MPAC's numbers every time. The under-evaluations are nice for the people who have them, but they aren't a benign error. When some people underpay, others have to overpay to make up the difference.

People are also aware that it's difficult to challenge MPAC's numbers.

Fortunately for MPAC's senior management team, they are working in the consequence-free world of government agencies. The auditor's report caused a couple of days of annoyance, but no heads will roll because of the corporation's poor performance.

In fact, that poor performance is really just about what you'd expect from a government-created monopoly. Good service or bad, Ontario's 444 municipalities still have to use MPAC for property assessment and pay its annual costs. Those municipalities paid $170 million last year. In Ottawa, we are paying $11.5 million this year, up from $10.9 million in 2008.

There is little, if any, accountability for MPAC. It was created by the provincial government to download the cost of assessment onto municipalities. The province sets all the rules and appoints the board of directors. It has cleverly ensured that the board is dominated by representatives from municipalities, but they have no real incentive to make sure your property assessment is correct.

Cities determine how much tax they require, then apply a rate to total assessment to produce that number. If individual properties are over- or underassessed, it doesn't affect the municipal bottom line.

Municipalities pay the bills, but they don't really care what it costs because it's coming out of your pocket. There is really no excuse for MPAC's shoddy performance, but there is probably no cure, either.