As I mentioned yesterday, the Auditor-General released a report with a dire warning of a possible new, massively larger Liberal government scandal than the one currently being investigated by the RCMP in at a dozen or more criminal investigations and a judicial inquiry. This potential new Liberal government scandal could now already be, or could be in the future, in the works by the Liberals in Ottawa.
And this one would be an all-Martin affair.
OTTAWA (CP) – Sensitive government information is vulnerable to computer hackers, and billions of taxpayer dollars are squirreled away in federal foundations without public scrutiny, says the auditor general.
Sheila Fraser’s latest report Tuesday is a tale of troubling possibilities rather than a blockbuster scandal.
But the woman who blew the lid off the sponsorship imbroglio a year ago has nonetheless put Prime Minister Paul Martin’s Liberal minority on notice that potentially more-damaging problems lie buried in the government’s machinery.
A year ago, Martin chose to call a judicial inquiry to get to the bottom of the $250-million sponsorship program after Fraser published a series of damning indictments of its management.
This time around, Martin is flatly denying anything is amiss.
“No money is hidden. Public reports are made,” the prime minister replied in the Commons after Conservative Leader Stephen Harper asked why the government is putting money into unaccountable foundations.
But Martin’s assertion contradicts Fraser’s oft-repeated warnings about Ottawa’s penchant for plowing year-end surpluses into the arms-length foundations. The agencies, such as the $2.5-billion Millennium Scholarship Foundation and the $3.6-billion Foundation for Innovation, are shielded from parliamentary and public scrutiny.
With $7.7 billion currently out of public view in foundation coffers – and rumours of new such projects being launched in next Wednesday’s federal budget – the Liberal government hasn’t made good on promises from the last two years to improve foundation transparency, Fraser wrote in her report.
“Given the significant sums involved, I am concerned about the lack of adequate accountability to Parliament.”
In simple terms, the various foundations could harbour the kinds of contracting irregularities, insider back-scratching and lack of value for money that bedevilled the sponsorship program, critics suggest.
“Instead of allowing the auditor general to protect Canadians in all areas of federal funding, this government is stonewalling,” New Democrat MP Peter Julian said in the Commons.
Conservative MP John Williams said “there’s always an opportunity for a sponsorship scandal to be hidden anywhere and that’s why we have auditors who are digging around trying to find these things.”
I think a lot more needs to be explained by the Liberals, who are being anything but forthcoming on this issue so far.
Here’s one of my previous blog entries on this.
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