PMO paid for Duffy's fraud

[Topaz]

The only problem with them standing up is MP's are worried about their jobs but they would be smart to get a reaction from their constituents before but then again, even if they outed Harper or talked against him, the next leader may not allow them to run in a election. I think a situation like this, the MP really doesn't have a choice without consequences. So what does a MP do????

[cybercoma]

Speaking of MPs holding the cabinet accountable, remember Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber, who is now sitting as an independent? He has an article on Harper's accountability here.

The entire system of checks and balances inside the Ottawa Bubble completely broke down. It is possible that a culture of moral indifference and general incompetence exists inside Langevin Block. If so, that culture was nurtured under this Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is responsible constitutionally for the operation, ethical standards and general competence of his own office. He is the PM in PMO.

Read the full story here: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/11/25/on_senate_scandal_the_buck_stops_with_stephen_harper_brent_rathgeber.html

[Topaz]

Today in the House, the Liberals had a government motion to go back and return to MP's their constituents comes first, instead the party leader. Apparently, back in the 1970's Trudeau had change it to the leader. The Tories were having none of that but MP's from both the Liberals and NDP did give a good speech on how the MP's should act in the House and how the Tory's, especially the PM Par.Sec. keeps answering questions on the PMO scandal with "see what they did" about the opposition parties.

[g_bambino]

Speaking of MPs holding the cabinet accountable...

Which takes us back to what I said was the catalyst for the death of MPs' influence.

[The_Squid]

Is Harper's story believable? Well, it's becoming less believable all the time. Take conservative Andrew Coyne:

To believe the prime minister's story, then, you have only to believe that his chief of staffand his chief fundraiser - oh and his legal counsel, his Senate leader, and assorted other senior aides and senators, conspired to make a secret payment to a sitting legislator, then tampered with an audit and whitewashed a committee report, without informing the prime minister of any of it. Or perhaps, that they were conned into it by that master of double-dealing, Nigel Wright.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Coyne+tale+unbelievable/9212460/story.html

[eyeball]

If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times, Harper and every minion, lobbyist and millionaire who gets within hearing range of him or his office should be wired with a hi-definition POV camera.

I mean, people anywhere near politics or governance should be thinking of wearing button cams to protect themselves from guilt by association if nothing else.

[cybercoma]

The Conservatives are working overtime to cover this all up. This happened just now:

@acoyne: Good Christ. @ShirleeEngel: Senate committee votes 8-5 NOT to call Deloitte's Runia (mentioned in RCMP docs, Gerstein contact) to testify

@stphnmaher: This is an excellent example of unaccountable government. No chance to ask Runia or Gerstein about very bad-smelling audit intervention.

@acoyne: The committee hears of a wildly inappropriate call by Runia asking for info at Gerstein’s request, and … votes not to call him. Unbelievable

@stphnmaher: If the Liberals had done this while Tories were in opposition, they would have bayed for blood.

@stphnmaher: Of course, Runia and Gerstein have bravely declined all interview requests. Enjoy paying Gerstein's salary, suckers.

@DebbySimms: @stphnmaher As a tax-payer I should fund this institution and keep my pesky questions to myself. #ShutUpandPay

@laura_payton: Your transparent #senca: no TV cameras allowed in, vote against calling partner who checked up on Duffy audit, shove reporter on way out #hw

@kady: Unbelievable. @laura_payton Senator Comeau tells reporters the police can investigate Runia's call if they want to. Not up to committee #hw

@kady: Is that the new threshold for taking an interest in possibleuntoward activities that could affect parliament's ability to do its job?

@kady: I really feel like there's a privilege issue that could be raised in the Senate, if not the House.

@kady: To be clear, the Conservative majority at Senate committee didn't vote not to call Runia, but not to even hear a motion to do so. #Hw

@kady: Which is actually even more egregious, in my view, but hey. #hw

@kady: What a rallying cry. @josh_wingrove "That's a job for somebody else," Internal Economy Committee chair Comeau says when asked about Gerstein

@pdmcleod: So Gerald Comeau's final act as a Senator after 28 years in Ottawa is to vote to halt an investigation into a possibly corrupted audit.

@romeoinottawa: Honour system "@paulvieira: Head of Sen cmtee says if Deloitte auditors say there was no interference, then Sen needs to take its word.

@M_Vastel: Deloitte handler tried to pick me up, move me out of way. I told him that is not correct behaviour [note: Vastel is a journalist that was trying to get a word from a Deloitte auditor, whose escort attempted to pick Ms. Vastel up and move her out of the way.]

@cmaconthehill: Committee votes to not have Deloitte boss testify, even though he placed a call to try and interfere with an audit the committee ordered

Edited November 28, 2013 by cybercoma

[cybercoma]

The CBC has now picked up the story. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/senators-won-t-ask-deloitte-partner-to-explain-duffy-audit-call-1.2443662?cmp=rss&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

An RCMP affidavit released last week suggests that Michael Runia was phoning at the behest of Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein as the Prime Minister's Office and party leadership scrambled to rein in a scandal over Duffy's spending.

Runia is the Ontario managing partner for Deloitte's audit section and the auditor of record for the Conservative Fund of Canada, the Conservative Party's fundraising arm.

How far down the rabbit hole does this go?

Edited November 28, 2013 by cybercoma

[cybercoma]

This is the party with the moral platform about openness and accountability. The party that would put the secrecy and coverups of the Chrétien administration behind us and make real changes in Ottawa to ensure this kind of thing wouldn't happen again.

[PIK]

The e-mails prompted a Senate committee to call Deloitte back for an explanation – though Mr. Runia wasn’t among them. On Thursday, a trio of Deloitte staff told the committee that Mr. Runia had indeed called them in “March sometime,” but stressed they didn’t give out information.

“He contacted me on one occasion in one phone call. The phone call was, he wanted to know if Senator Duffy Were to repay, how much would that be,” said Deloitte’s Gary Timm, who was one of a handful of people involved in the Duffy audit and took Mr. Runia’s call. “ I told him I can’t divulge or disclose any confidential information. He understood my reply.”

He later added: “It was a short call and it ended there…. I wanted to keep everything confidential.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/firm-that-reviewed-duffys-expenses-says-audit-was-independent-rebutting-rcmp/article15648981/

[PIK]

This is the party with the moral platform about openness and accountability. The party that would put the secrecy and coverups of the Chrétien administration behind us and make real changes in Ottawa to ensure this kind of thing wouldn't happen again.

All they did was try and get the money back, future governments now know not to try ,just let the money disappear, it is easier.

[cybercoma]

Why did Gerstein team up with Runia to make that call before whitewashing the audit reports?

[The_Squid]

All they did was try and get the money back, future governments now know not to try ,just let the money disappear, it is easier.

No, they tried to cover up the fraud.

If they held their senators to account rather than covering things up and then bribing one not to cooperate with an audit, this would only have been about the senators and Harper's poor judgement appointing them.

Now it's a criminal matter.

[PIK]

Why did Gerstein team up with Runia to make that call before whitewashing the audit reports?

Team up. lol Are we teaming up by having this conversation?

[On Guard for Thee]

This government seems to have let 3.1 billion disappear somewhere. When will they get that back I wonder?

[jacee]

All they did was try and get the money back, future governments now know not to try ,just let the money disappear, it is easier.

Let's be perfectly clear: This isn't about concern for taxpayers money. (Ya where is the $3b ?)

This is about a payoff and whitewash engineered by the Conservative Party, for political protection.

Edited November 29, 2013 by jacee

[waldo]

This is about a payoff and whitewash engineered by the Conservative Party, for political protection.

Harper Conservatives circle the wagons to prevent Senate testimony from auditor Deloitte's Michael Runia and Conservative Senator Irving Gerstein!

Senate scandal: A cover-up in broad daylight:

One rarely gets to watch a cover-up in real time, in broad daylight, but our Senate is where logic and morality go to die.

This week, the Conservative Senate majority endorsed an earlier decision by its majority on a committee, refusing to call a central player to testify about his role in what appears to be a case of audit-tampering.

[Keepitsimple]

Let's be perfectly clear: This isn't about concern for taxpayers money. (Ya where is the $3b ?)

This is about a payoff and whitewash engineered by the Conservative Party, for political protection.

Jacee - will you please stop picking on the Liberals for most of that $3 billion. They've been out of power since 2006. Why do you keep going back and hammering them? It's bad enough they've had to deal with the sponsorship scandal and Shewinigate. The Auditor's Report went from 2001 to 2010 and the issue has long since been sorted out. I find it hard to defend the Liberals but as the Auditor said - the money is not missing - it just can't be properly detailed.

[waldo]

Jacee - will you please stop picking on the Liberals for most of that $3 billion. They've been out of power since 2006. Why do you keep going back and hammering them? It's bad enough they've had to deal with the sponsorship scandal and Shewinigate. The Auditor's Report went from 2001 to 2010 and the issue has long since been sorted out. I find it hard to defend the Liberals but as the Auditor said - the money is not missing - it just can't be properly detailed.

will Harper Conservative supporters ever accept any degree of accountability for their favoured party? Ever?

[jacee]

will Harper Conservative supporters ever accept any degree of accountability for their favoured party? Ever?

It's quite odd that they don't really care about missing taxpayer money, or anything of substance. I guess they just like Harper's hair better than Justin's.

Harper's crew are trying to 'reconstruct' (make up) what they did with the missing $3.1b ... or at least figure out what they're going to tell us about it.

http://m.hilltimes.com/

Over $1b still unaccounted for, and all of it only vaguely described.

How do we know it wasn't just a political slush fund for the various Ministers? We don't!

Edited December 10, 2013 by jacee

[g_bambino]

will Harper Conservative supporters ever accept any degree of accountability for their favoured party? Ever?

Specifically regarding the case you're discussing, why should they?

[Accountability Now]

It's quite odd that they don't really care about missing taxpayer money, or anything of substance. I guess they just like Harper's hair better than Justin's.

Harper's crew are trying to 'reconstruct' (make up) what they did with the missing $3.1b ... or at least figure out what they're going to tell us about it.

http://m.hilltimes.com/

Over $1b still unaccounted for, and all of it only vaguely described.

How do we know it wasn't just a political slush fund for the various Ministers? We don't!

Actually it has all been found and accounted for. http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/11/28/john-ivison-the-3-1-billion-conservative-boondoggle-that-never-was/

What ever will you have to complain about now? Perhaps that 10 billion in legal fees you claimed they spent? That was a good one too.

[PIK]

How about the 40 million the liberal party was to pay back to the taxpayer?? No wonder they keep this 90g's on the front page.

[waldo]

Specifically regarding the case you're discussing, why should they?

cause... apparently, there's still money unaccounted for - $1.3 billion of the original audit's $3.1 billion figure. Notwithstanding the audit was on Harper Conservatives watch, highlighting that the TB (under their watch) didn't have the capacity to properly account for the 'missing funds'. That $14 million was spent trying to track down the 'missing funds'. So ya, again... just when do Harper Conservatives ever take accountability for anything?

Mr. Ferguson’s spring 2013 audit found that $3.1-billion of the funding could not be accounted for. TBS now says that $2-billion of the figure can be traced to nine departments.

National Defence was the largest source of unaccounted PSAT funding at $757.5-million, while $312.4-million of the unaccounted spending was traced back to Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Other departments cited in the report included Infrastructure Canada, Public Safety, Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, Canadian Food Inspection Agency, CSIS, the RCMP, and the Canadian Border Services Agency.

But the Treasury Board report goes on to state that $1.3-billion of the $3-billion was not included in the PSAT reporting framework — an assessment that does little to clarify what ultimately happened to the funding. An additional $500-million of the funding was reprofiled, $455-million was returned to general revenue, and more than $265-million was reallocated. An additional $94.2-million is classified as “Other.”

[GostHacked]

Let's be perfectly clear: This isn't about concern for taxpayers money. (Ya where is the $3b ?)

This is about a payoff and whitewash engineered by the Conservative Party, for political protection.

It is a concern for taxpayer money. Many government resources including legal council and money are being spent to investigate this fraud. So even if you say that the money used to cover Duffy's expense 'miscalculation' came from the CPC's own pockets (aka donations from individuals), the RCPM, investigators and lawyers are being paid for by the likes of you and me. If Duffy and Wallen lose this case, then they should be held accountable and pay to cover the layers, RCMP ect ect. Treat them hostile and then you may see others in government shape up.