According to the Treasury Board Secretariat, the public accounts forecast for the 2011-12 fiscal year shows that Cabinet ministers, ministers of state, associate ministers and Parliamentary secretaries spent a combined total of $54.5-million; a five per cent reduction from the previous year’s forecast.
Sean Osmar, press secretary to Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry Sound-Muskoka, Ont.), said ministerial office expenses have declined by 18 per cent since 2010.
While the 2010-11 budget forecast for ministerial office spending was $57.4-million, actual expenditures came in at $51-million. In the 2009-10 fiscal year, the forecasted $69-million turned out to actually be $58-million in ministerial office budget expenditures. Between 2009-10 and 2010-11, ministerial office budget expenditures were reduced by 12 per cent.
PMO director of communications Andrew MacDougall said that PMO spending has decreased by 13.7 per cent since the 2010-11 fiscal year, and by 22 per cent since the year previous.
However, the public accounts also show the cost of the PMO rose by nearly 25 per cent between the 2007-08 and 2009-10 fiscal years—jumping from approximately $7.6-million to $9.89-million.
The Hill Times directly asked both TBS and Mr. MacDougall whether or not ministerial office budgets and the PMO budget, respectively, were subjected to the five to 10 per cent cuts of the strategic and operating review (SOR).
“The Prime Minister’s Office is doing its part in reducing spending across government,” said Mr. MacDougall in an email to The Hill Times.
Similarly, an email from TBS simply stated, “Ministers’ offices’ budgets are reviewed annually.”
Last year’s strategic and operating review, launched as part of the 2011 budget, sought to find $4-billion in savings by reviewing government programs and operations. Cabinet’s Treasury Board Strategic and Operating Review Subcommittee, chaired by Mr. Clement, was charged with reviewing the numerous departmental savings proposals, with departments ultimately taking between five and 10 per cent in cuts.
As a result of the SOR, the House of Commons will reduce its approximately $445-million total annual budget by 6.9 per cent—a total reduction of $30.3-million—over the next three fiscal years, as decided by the secretive, multi-partisan Commons Board of Internal Economy (BOIE).
To achieve that reduction, $13.5-million in savings will be achieved by reductions to House officers (such as the Speaker, House leaders, whips, party leaders, caucus chairs) and MPs office budgets, as well as party research offices. Roughly $3.8-million is being cut from the budgets of House Committees and Parliamentary associations. Additionally, the House administration budget will be cut by $13-million over three years.
Similarly, the Senate made cuts as part of the SOR. According to Senate estimates, tabled on Feb. 29 by Saskatchewan Senator David Tkachuk, chair of the Senate’s Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration Committee, the Senate is expected to spend approximately total $92.2-million in the 2012-13 fiscal year, down from almost $94-million spent the year previous; a total budgetary reduction of about 1.85 per cent.
These reductions to MP office budgets will likely mean reducing some office hours and shifting some constituency employees to work part-time instead, and potentially laying off other staffers, said NDP MP Joe Comartin (Windsor-Tecumseh, Ont.), a member of the BOIE, in an interview with Postmedia.
Although the 2012-2013 budget mentions the reductions to be decided by the House and the Senate BOIEs, and reductions to departmental spending are set out in a table, there is no ostensible mention of either the PMO or ministerial office budgets.
Liberal MP Gerry Byrne (Humber-St.Barbe-Baie Verte, Nfld.), also a member of the House Public Accounts Committee, said if ministerial office budgets were subjected to SOR cuts “the government would have publicized it.”
“In the build-up to the budget they talked about MPs office budgets being cut, they didn’t say a word, not a word about ministerial office budget cuts, and that tells me, it ain’t happening…if it was scheduled to be part of the program review cuts then they would have basically flaunted it as a virtue. Hiding it shows that it’s not in the cards,” said Mr. Byrne. “Those on the ground providing the public with programs and services on behalf of the government of Canada, they’re the ones being cut. And the ones exempt and immune from any such pain? The senior managers who are actually imposing those decisions.”
The Privy Council Office, however, is included in the 2012 budget’s chart of SOR reductions, and faces around 10 per cent in cuts.
According to PCO spokesperson Raymond Rivet, prior to the 2005-06 fiscal year, the PMO’s budget was disclosed as part of PCO’s main estimates. That year, Treasury Board implemented a new, government-wide policy called Management, Resources and Results Structure (MRRS), a new system of budgetary reporting that organizes budgets based on program activity. This change caused the budgets of the already intertwined PMO and PCO to be largely combined. The PCO is supposed to be a non-partisan department providing support to the Prime Minister.
Under this new system of reporting, the cost of providing policy advice in the PMO and the PCO, for example, would be presented as part of one program activity. These changes to budgetary reporting make it impossible to determine, from the outside, what the PMO, budget is by itself.
Now, information about ministers’ office budgets is only publicly available in the government’s public accounts, which show the amount ultimately spent, not the budget that was allocated to work with. Similarly, the only figure available for PMO spending, on it’s own, is in the actual spending listed in the public accounts. The public accounts for the 2011-12 fiscal year won’t be published until next fall.
According to the public accounts, Cabinet ministerial offices spent a combined total of $60.2-million in 2010-2011, including the PMO, which spent $9-million.
Similarly, according to the Treasury Board Secretariat, ministerial office budgets have not been included in the Treasury Board Policies and Guidelines for Ministers’ Offices since 2008, though a breakdown of allowable expenditures is still provided.
Ministerial office budgets—which TB press secretary Mr. Osmar said have decreased by 18 per cent since 2010—cost a total of $59.3-million in 2008, as previously reported by The Hill Times.
In 2008, full Cabinet ministers had a maximum annual budget of around $1.9-million, and a minister of state had a maximum annual budget of $642,590. Cabinet minister’s also received an additional annual maximum of $82,920, to be budgeted for Parliamentary secretaries, and an annual maximum of $379,670 was given to ministers with regional responsibilities.
Mr. Byrne said it’s not enough that actual spending is provided in the public accounts. “The normal financial planning cycle within government is to provide public information as to what is intended to be spent through the estimates and then to account for what was spent through the public accounts,” said Mr. Byrne.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: LAURA RYCKEWAERT
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