In a report released Tuesday, Auditor General Michael Ferguson said the funds were earmarked for public security and anti-terrorism measures between 2001 and 2009. But when Ferguson and his team went through the Treasury Board's books, they were unable to identify where the $3.1 billion had been spent.
On Wednesday, NDP MP Nycole Turmel accused the Conservatives of “amateur management of funds,” and demanded that the government clarify whether the funds were spent appropriately.
“When the Liberals lost track of $1 billion at Human Resources, the current minster of defence qualified the situation as extremely serious. He said, and I quote, ‘it warrants an investigation,’” Turmel said in question period.
“Can the prime minister confirm that he has the same ethical standards that he had at the time and immediately announce the holding of an inquiry?”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not address the inquiry question directly. However, he said the auditor general found no evidence that money was misspent.
“As the auditor general said, there is no money missing. There’s no money that’s been lost,” Harper said. “It’s quite the opposite and this is an issue of clarity in the analysis, and the Treasury Board president has accepted the auditor general’s recommendations.”
In his report, Ferguson acknowledged there were a number of possible explanations for what happened.
He said the money may have been approved for various projects, and then lapsed without being spent. It may have been spent on anti-terror initiatives but reported through ongoing program spending protocols, or it may have been carried forward and spent on other programs.
"We didn't identify anything that gave us cause for concern that the money was used in any way it should not have been, however it's important that there be a way for people to understand how this money was spent,” Ferguson said.
One day after an auditor general’s report highlighted $3.1 billion in unaccounted-for spending on counter-terrorism and public security, Treasury Board President Tony Clement said the reporting process will be more transparent going forward.
Treasury Board President Tony Clement said during question period that the funds are accounted for “in the public accounts that are tabled in this chamber each and every year.”
Earlier Wednesday, Clement said the reporting process will be more transparent going forward.
"The fact is it all is accounted for, but through a different methodology and that methodology is the traditional way that governments -- both the Liberal government before us and the current government on its anti-terrorism measures -- reported to Parliament, through something called the public accounts," Clement told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday.
Clement told Canada AM that the "take-home point" is that there needs to be a streamlined system for reporting spending of taxpayers' dollars.
"I think the auditor general's point is it would have been nice to have a whole of government consideration through Treasury Board and what he found was there was 40 banker's boxes worth of information that were kind of in the basement somewhere at Treasury Board that never flowed up to the politicians that actually sit around the table at Treasury Board," Clement said.
"So that's a fair point and that should be rectified in the future absolutely."
He said one could painstakingly go to each year's federal public accounts, then delve into each department's specific spending breakdown to determine exactly how much they had spent on anti-terrorism measures or public security projects, adding "I'm not saying it's easier, but it is possible to do."
On Tuesday, Clement said a number of programs, such as the arming of border guards, marine security operations and anti-terror deployment initiatives in Afghanistan were funded under the Public Security and Anti-Terrorism Initiative (PSAT) but remained “outside of the categorization mechanism set up by the Treasury Board Secretariat,” and would therefore not show up in the books Ferguson looked at.
He added that spending details weren’t provided for sensitive public security projects and said in some cases programs are ongoing and spending has simply been rolled forward into future years.
Original Article
Source: ctvnews.ca
Author: Andrea Janus and Andy Johnson
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