Before Caroline/Samantha tries to give me a lesson in politics or history, or complains that she does not understand the point of my title, I should state simply that the following headline from the Star is further evidence that politicians of all stripes in Canada are entitled and corrupt. The COMMENTS section contains the rest of the story:
MPs rebuff attempts to audit their spending
Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau chief
OTTAWA – Federal politicians of all stripes who agree on little have agreed on this – they don’t want the Auditor General auditing their spending.
Sheila Fraser, whose sharp-pencilled probing has exposed waste and inefficiency across federal departments, has been rebuffed in her year-long attempt to put MPs under that same scrutiny.
Late Thursday, the board of internal economy, a secretive, all-party committee of MPs that controls Commons’ spending, refused her demands to open the books.
“Following careful consideration, the Auditor General will not be invited to conduct a performance audit of the House of Commons,” the board said in a news release.
“According to the Auditor General’s Act, the proposed audit would go beyond the scope of the Auditor General’s mandate, which allows her to audit government departments and various Crown agencies as identified in the Act, but does not include the legislative branch,” the board said.
The MPs pointed out that the Commons’ own auditors have reported that “appropriate oversight practices and procedures are in place.”
Fraser’s office said that she would likely respond Friday. She wanted to do a “performance audit” of parliamentary spending to ensure that the proper checks and balances were in place.
But in the end, MPs who routinely rail about secrecy, accountability and transparency decided to keep their own books tightly under wraps.
From the start, MPs were cool to her demands to look at the $440 million spent running the House of Commons and the $93 million on the Senate.
Duff Conacher, of Democracy Watch, said that MPs likely accept an audit as inevitable and are just trying to buy time to get their spending in order.
“Let’s all clean things up over the next year and then allow her in,” Conacher said.
“The pressure is not going to go away . . . I don’t think the auditor general is going to drop it and she shouldn’t,” Conacher said.
And he said the smart political party would get ahead of the issue and propose legislative changes that would give the Auditor General a clear mandate to probe parliamentary spending.
“It’s really shameful that they are all maintaining the same position,” he said.
Kevin Gaudet, director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, called it a “black-letter day” that the only government spending that remains off-limits to the auditor is the cash that MPs spend themselves.
“When they hide their spending like this, all it does is further fuel public cynicism,” Gaudet said.
[...] of good for our country. She has ovaries the size of basketballs! I recently reported on the scumbag MPs’ refusal to open their books to an audit, since they believe they are entitled roy… Well, Sheila Fraser ain’t backin’ down, as you can see in the first Star story in the [...]
Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau chief
OTTAWA – Federal politicians of all stripes who agree on little have agreed on this – they don’t want the Auditor General auditing their spending.
Sheila Fraser, whose sharp-pencilled probing has exposed waste and inefficiency across federal departments, has been rebuffed in her year-long attempt to put MPs under that same scrutiny.
Late Thursday, the board of internal economy, a secretive, all-party committee of MPs that controls Commons’ spending, refused her demands to open the books.
“Following careful consideration, the Auditor General will not be invited to conduct a performance audit of the House of Commons,” the board said in a news release.
“According to the Auditor General’s Act, the proposed audit would go beyond the scope of the Auditor General’s mandate, which allows her to audit government departments and various Crown agencies as identified in the Act, but does not include the legislative branch,” the board said.
The MPs pointed out that the Commons’ own auditors have reported that “appropriate oversight practices and procedures are in place.”
Fraser’s office said that she would likely respond Friday. She wanted to do a “performance audit” of parliamentary spending to ensure that the proper checks and balances were in place.
But in the end, MPs who routinely rail about secrecy, accountability and transparency decided to keep their own books tightly under wraps.
From the start, MPs were cool to her demands to look at the $440 million spent running the House of Commons and the $93 million on the Senate.
Duff Conacher, of Democracy Watch, said that MPs likely accept an audit as inevitable and are just trying to buy time to get their spending in order.
“Let’s all clean things up over the next year and then allow her in,” Conacher said.
“The pressure is not going to go away . . . I don’t think the auditor general is going to drop it and she shouldn’t,” Conacher said.
And he said the smart political party would get ahead of the issue and propose legislative changes that would give the Auditor General a clear mandate to probe parliamentary spending.
“It’s really shameful that they are all maintaining the same position,” he said.
Kevin Gaudet, director of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation, called it a “black-letter day” that the only government spending that remains off-limits to the auditor is the cash that MPs spend themselves.
“When they hide their spending like this, all it does is further fuel public cynicism,” Gaudet said.