Defence Department has 'gone rogue', opposition claims, as auditor blasts critics

OTTAWA — Angry and frustrated over what they see as an intentional effort to obfuscate, opposition members declared Tuesday that their confidence in Defence officials is wearing thin and the department is either out of control or, worse, gone "rogue."

"There's no faith in this department anymore," NDP MP Malcolm Allen said following another round of parliamentary committee hearings into the troubled F-35 stealth fighter program. "None whatsoever."

A spotlight has been cast on senior Defence bureaucrats since Auditor General Michael Ferguson released a scathing report on the F-35 last month.

That report found senior managers had twisted rules, whitewashed problems and withheld information about the stealth fighter program, including not disclosing — weeks before the last federal election — that the planes would cost taxpayers at least $25 billion.

Officials, led by deputy minister Robert Fonberg, the department's top civilian, have disputed many of Ferguson's findings and called into question his conclusions — all while insisting they acted in good faith.

Appearing before Parliament's public accounts committee for a third time on Tuesday, Ferguson again defended his figures while blasting assertions from Defence officials that disclosure of all information is not necessary.

"I am concerned with suggestions that accurate estimation and the inclusion of personnel, operating and maintenance costs are not important since they would be incurred regardless of the aircraft selected to replace the CF-18," Ferguson said.

Opposition members have previously expressed dissatisfaction with the answers provided by Fonberg and other officials, saying they are contradictory and incomplete at best. That criticism came to a head after Ferguson's appearance.

"This is a department that's really gone rogue," Allen said, adding that Defence Minister Peter MacKay "has totally lost control of that department."

Allen noted that while Fonberg has said the department expects the cost of operating one F-35 to be about the same as one of Canada's existing CF-18s, another official, Dan Ross, has said it would be $50 million to $100 million more.

"When (Fonberg) and (Ross) can't get their act together, we're in a lot of trouble in that department," Allen said.

"If the officials in the Defence Department are actually misleading the committee and misleading Parliament," he added, "then I guess they ought to be gone. You can't have folks at that level misleading the committee and misleading Parliament, if that's indeed what they've done."

While the F-35 has become a lightning rod for controversy, the Defence Department has been embroiled in a litany of other issues as well.

These have included the decision to cut the number of medical personnel providing mental health services for soldiers and problems with acquiring armoured vehicles and armed vessels for the Arctic.

"They have lost control," said Liberal MP Gerry Byrne.

"They're cutting necessary funds from our rank and file, our uniformed men and women in the Canadian armed forces, while at the same they just nonchalantly seem to be proceeding with these major, multi-billion-dollar procurements without applying their own rules. That tells me there's a problem at the top."

Opposition parties aren't the only ones upset with how the Defence Department has been managed. Some Conservative government insiders have also expressed frustration with the way information on major projects like the F-35 has been presented.

But Douglas Bland, a defence expert at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., doesn't blame only officials. In the case of the F-35, he said, the government would have told the department to find a way to acquire the stealth fighter.

"The bureaucrats, not only in DND but in any department, don't do anything without looking at the Prime Minister's Office," he said. "In this case, they were doing exactly what the government wanted them to do."

Still, Bland said there has been a noticeable decline in the Conservative government's strident support for the military as there have been political costs for the numerous procurement issues and Canada's ongoing involvement in Afghanistan — even as it looks to the department's $21-billion budget for savings.

"The hissing sound you hear is the air going out of the pro-military balloon at the Conservative Party headquarters," he said. "They've had enough."

Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Lee Berthiaume