New Brunswick’s auditor general put Service New Brunswick at the foundation of the province's property tax blunder in a report released Thursday.

“The senior management team and board of directors of Service New Brunswick failed to assess the significance of this modernization initiative,” said Auditor General Kim MacPherson. 

MacPherson said a meeting in May 2016, which included Service New Brunswick and Premier Brian Gallant, was clearly important to having "fast-track" technology sped up.

“May 5, there was no plan in place, no intention to shorten the timeline from three years to one. But by the end of the day on May 6, which started with the demonstration to the premier, they were cutting their timeline by two years,” said MacPherson.

“We did not find evidence that he directed that modernization, the fast-track occur.”

The auditor general said after the meeting the premier's chief-of-staff emailed back and forth with the former CEO of Service New Brunswick.

“But there didn't appear to be any apparent urgency to the emails from the chief of staff,” said MacPherson.

The auditor general said a presentation made to Service New Brunswick staff implied the premier was pushing for the technology to be implemented in half the time. She called that a fictional conversation.

“We were told that was intended to motivate the staff, to get buy in, to be able to move quickly,” MacPherson said.

MacPherson said the reputation of Service New Brunswick has been severely damaged. The Liberals believe Brian Gallant has been vindicated.

“There's not even one document that shows he asked for this fast-tracking process, so basically there's no piece of evidence whatsoever,” says New Brunswick Environment and Local Government Minister Serge Rouselle.

Official Opposition Leader Blaine Higgs says there are gaps of information in the timeline provided.

“There's a discrepancy within the premier's office, there's a discrepancy of the message coming from the premier and chief of staff,” he says.

The auditor general said a government directive to create a new independent crown corporation for calculating property tax shouldn't go ahead because there are too many other issues to focus on. The government said they agreed and won't be moving forward on that file.

MacPherson also said her audit was carried out in a thorough way and is now complete.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore.