Auditor General Strikes Again...

[Technocrat]

Auditor General Strikes Again...

The former ombudsman for federal prison inmates often skipped work and collected $325,000 in improper or questionable salary, vacation pay and expenses during a six-year period of his 26 years in office, Auditor General Sheila Fraser alleges.

The latest report by Fraser, whose previous work blew open the federal sponsorship scandal, examined a wide range of government programs, practices and spending. It found serious problems with controls of public servants' charge cards and safety regulations at Health Canada.

(Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press) Ron Stewart, a former CFL football star who retired from the Correctional Service of Canada in 2003, repeatedly failed to attend staff meetings, was frequently unavailable to aides and otherwise shirked his duties, Fraser concluded in her report released Tuesday.

"Obviously, he [stewart] was not at his office a lot and received wages for work he didn't do," Fraser told reporters after the report's release.

She also found that Stewart, who once played for the now-defunct Ottawa Rough Riders, charged the government for hospitality and travel apparently unrelated to his work, including five trips to cities hosting Grey Cup games, and was awarded hefty bonuses disguised as overtime pay.

The report alleges that between 1998 and 2003, Stewart missed work on 319 days, but billed for them. He also was reimbursed $8,000 for two computers the auditor general said he didn't know how to use, but were used by family members at his home.

Nice... another asshat bites the dust...

I know the allegations have yet to be proven in court but cmon... this guy stole (allegedly) from taxpayers. And no small sum of money. Is it time we start throwing useless civil servants in jail for these sorts of crimes... I think so. No more slaps on the wrist and shaking a finger at these sorts of people, they lie, they cheat, they steal.

I hope this man has a miserable retirement.

Also of note from the report:

The awarding of a Canada-wide contract for relocating members of the Canadian Forces was twice botched and meant ordinary soldiers were overcharged for moving expenses.

The government was not vigilant enough about recouping $82 million in overpayments under the Old Age Security program.

A sampling of seven of the 88 information technology projects launched since 2003, worth $7.1 billion, found rampant mismanagement. Many were far over budget and long past deadline.

Treaty negotiations with First Nations in British Columbia badly bogged down, with not a single treaty signed as costs skyrocket to $426 million since 1993.

A review of the RCMP's pension and insurance plan suggests more money may need to be recovered. Four officers implicated in abuse will not face disciplinary action because too much time has elapsed.

Health Canada badly mismanaged a contract to provide First Nations with health benefits.

Cabinet secrecy prevented access to key information about whether the government is properly assessing new spending proposals. The impasse was resolved only on Nov. 6 and will not be fully retroactive.

sooo much to talk about...

(if I have posted too much of this article just say so and I will edit it... i don't usually start these threads)

*just to clarifly and not to be totally slanderous all charges are alleged* (CYA my friends CYA)

[August1991]

But Fraser said there is no indication of any widespread corruption in the public service connected to the Liberal government.

"Absolutely not ... This is very unusual, and we should not generalize this to the public service," Fraser told CTV's Mike Duffy Live.

"This is not typical of how the vast majority of public servants work, and I think in fact, public servants are more upset when they see cases like this."

CTV

I disagree.

Mitchell Sharp was given a job in 1978 (and Mulroney even tolerated it). Then Chretien hired him as $1/year man. How generous:

Sharp re-entered the private sector as the commissioner of the Northern Pipeline Agency from 1978 until 1988. However, his public service continued as he served as a co-chairman of a task force on conflict of interest and published a report on ethical conduct in the public service in 1984. Other posts included head of the Canadian group and deputy chairman of the Trilateral Commission (1976-1986). From 1988 through 1993, he served as a policy associate with Strategion. He was a personal adviser to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien from 1993 to 2003, a job for which he was paid $1 a year.

Wikipedia

Maybe I shouldn't use old, high profile examples such as Mitchell Sharp. (Why is the AG picking on this prison commissioner? The money involved is peanuts.)

I worked for several years in the federal government and I was appalled with what I saw. If I am a "right wing, conservative" now, it is partly due to that experience. Civil servants have many, many reasons to hide what they do from the auditors. It's a cat and mouse game and the mice are ahead of the cat.

Moreover, the AG's comment ignores the kind of expenses the AG would consider as legitimate. I cringe whenever I see a newspaper report of a government employee "on leave with pay" pending some tribunal decision. I recall a phrase that I learned, "Don't try to save the government money."

The AG is a bureaucrat. She and her staff are looking for crooked trees but they can't see the crooked forest. Increasingly, they can't even see the crooked trees.

If we are looking for a way to ensure that this wonderful institution called government can exercise some good in our society (and I optimistically think that's possible), the AG is not the magical solution. It takes something else - but I don't know what.

[jbg]

The worms keep eating the Liberal ship.

[Charles Anthony]

The worms keep eating the Liberal ship.

We voted them in!

(Why is the AG picking on this prison commissioner? The money involved is peanuts.)

That is what I thought too. As much as I like saying "a nickel saved is a nickel earned" this $300,000 over 6 years -- is a lot of money for one person -- is very little for the federal government.

Maybe there is political interference. This job may be the most accessible right now and thus, a strategic PR point-scorer.

Civil servants have many, many reasons to hide what they do from the auditors. It's a cat and mouse game and the mice are ahead of the cat.

My parents and siblings work for the federal government. They admit the same. I encounter younger civil servants who freely and laughingly admit they do nothing.

I recall a phrase that I learned, "Don't try to save the government money."

When I hear of one civil servant who admits to doing nothing, I think of one person on welfare.

the AG is not the magical solution. It takes something else - but I don't know what.

Oh, sure you do! In Canada, it takes decentralization!

[Whereas in Hugoland, it takes getting rid of the federal government entirely.]

How else can we make public spending more accountable than to keep it closer to its tax-base?

That means small government.

[Wilber]

How else can we make public spending more accountable than to keep it closer to its tax-base?

That means small government.

I think it is probably the only way, in reality the larger and more unwieldy the institution the more opportunity for abuse.

$300,000 is not much to the Federal government, they can blow that on nothing in the time it takes to blow your nose. I think the AG has highlighted this case not because of the amount of damage done to the public purse (pretty minor on a Federal level) but like the sponsorship scandal it had no other function but to divert public money into individual bank accounts, therefore it could not be ignored.

[watching&waiting]

I am very sorry that the small amounts in this seem to offend some people. I believethat what it shows is just how entrenched spending can be and how it is misued by some. The position that this person was supposed to be in charge of, just never seemed to over looked by anyone and that is why there were many such desprepanies. The audit was over just 6 years but as she stated we should now look at the full 16 yeras that he held this position. The missing of 319 days is also something that needs to have been watched more closely. The obvious grey cup trips and other things should heva set off alarms that were never attended to. This is just one small tip of what will be coming next.

The Liberal senate had best get ready to pass the accountability legislation, as to further hold it up will only make all this once again become a liberal thing. There only hope now is to be shown giving as much support they can in cleaning this stuff out of government. To be seen as holding up any bills on this will be seen as supporting the spending. Not a wise position to be taking. This will probably grow into something very large by the spring and that is when most will agree there will be an election. If the liberal are going to be able to even have a chance they will need to distance themselves from this very tpe of thing, but with all their petty bickering leading to the leadership vote, I am not sure that they will not tie themselves to this permanently.

[jbg]

The Liberal senate had best get ready to pass the accountability legislation, as to further hold it up will only make all this once again become a liberal thing.

Would make a great election issue. To bad the Liberals didn't decide to spike the government on this one.

[betsy]

There's more.

CAS.

[jdobbin]

The Liberal senate had best get ready to pass the accountability legislation, as to further hold it up will only make all this once again become a liberal thing. There only hope now is to be shown giving as much support they can in cleaning this stuff out of government. To be seen as holding up any bills on this will be seen as supporting the spending. Not a wise position to be taking. This will probably grow into something very large by the spring and that is when most will agree there will be an election. If the liberal are going to be able to even have a chance they will need to distance themselves from this very tpe of thing, but with all their petty bickering leading to the leadership vote, I am not sure that they will not tie themselves to this permanently.

Many of the amendments in the Senate come from Conservative Senate members. Perhaps Harper should talk to them.

[geoffrey]

There's more.

CAS.

Check provincial politics.

[watching&waiting]

The vast majority of ammendments were by the Liberal senators. There may have been a very small from the CPC members. So lets keep the blame where it belongs. I know the Liberals would like to hide their participation in this but we are not going to let them.

[jdobbin]

The vast majority of ammendments were by the Liberal senators. There may have been a very small from the CPC members. So lets keep the blame where it belongs. I know the Liberals would like to hide their participation in this but we are not going to let them.

Last time I checked, there were about half and half between Liberals and Tories when it came to amendments. Some of those amendments have been useful ones. I see no delay in pushing the legislation through. You have evidence that they really are delaying?

[geoffrey]

The bill is crap anyways, the CPC wants to change it after they found they violated their own accountability legislation.

What kind of responsible government is that?

[abcon99]

Nice to see the AG smacking leftist beauracrats once again. Me so happy!

[abcon99]

The senate is unelected anti democratic garbage, and I wouldn't take a word they said to heart. They have no standing in my mind, and since I agree to what is chosen by people who are elected fairly, in a first past the post election, where each province has the number of seats that correspond to the population, till that happens I spit on anything that comes from anyone who was not elected in Alberta. Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta must have more seats, and a number of other provinces must lose seats, and the senate must become equal elected and effective, or abolished, and till the day this is accomplished I don't recognize the authority of either the parliment, the supreme court, or the senate, and the constitution is arse wipe paper.