AG plans to audit all senators

OTTAWA – Canada’s auditor general plans to review every senator’s expenses amid a firestorm over improper claims.

“We’re still going through our planning phase, but certainly our intention is to look at all the senators,” Michael Ferguson said in an interview Thursday.

Members of the Senate’s internal economy committee voted in June to invite Ferguson’s office to audit senators’ expenses. The call came as the Senate was awash in controversy, after Senators Mac Harb, Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy had their living and housing allowances subject to an independent audit.

Auditor general set to probe Senate expenses

OTTAWA — Canada’s auditor general is readying his office for a Senate expense audit that will examine the spending practices of every member of the troubled upper chamber.

Michael Ferguson’s audit could take at least a year to complete, said a source familiar with the plan the auditor laid out earlier this week for the Senate’s internal economy committee.

Tory MPs put end to Commons committee inquiry into AG’s report on F-35s

PARLIAMENT HILL—Conservative MPs are putting an end to a Commons committee inquiry into Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s scathing report on the government’s controversial plan to spend $25-billion on 65 F-35 stealth fighter jets.

NDP MP Malcolm Allen (Welland, Ont.), who mounted the party’s filibuster through several meetings that were held in-camera at the government’s insistence, said the official opposition is satisfied it aired unofficial testimony in August from critics of the program, who spoke at a “roundtable” discussion of the F-35 procurement in a Centre Block committee room.

AG’s spring report on feds’ F-35 fighter jets attracted ‘massive’ media attention: documents

PARLIAMENT HILL—Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s explosive report released in April on the government’s $25-billion plan to acquire 65 F-35 stealth fighter jets received “massive” media coverage for two weeks after its release and was one of the top three most controversial auditor general reports in the past decade, according to newly-released documents and a ranking of audit report news coverage from the AG’s office.

There were more than 1,000 news stories on the internet about the F-35 audit from its April 3 date of release until April 18 and thousands more “hits” on television and radio news programs, as well as emailed letters from citizens, most of whom expressed support for Mr.  Ferguson as the controversy began raging, according to copies of emails and documents released by the Auditor General’s Office under the Access to Information Act.

PM: Commons has gone too far

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is siding with auditor general Michael Ferguson in his court case against the House of Commons.

House lawyers are asking the Federal Court to stop Ferguson from releasing documents requested through access to information laws.

The NDP confirmed Tuesday they were behind the request. They asked for all emails involving Ferguson and his staff relating to his appearance before a parliamentary committee last spring.

Conservatives, NDP, Liberals distance themselves from House’s Federal Court fight with AG

PARLIAMENT HILL—The majority-governing Conservatives, NDP, and Liberals quickly distanced themselves on Tuesday from an unprecedented decision by House Speaker Andrew Scheer to ask the Federal Court for an order preventing Auditor General Michael Ferguson from releasing his correspondence with House committee clerks about his committee testimony earlier this year on the F-35 fighter jets.

Mr. Sheer (Regina-Qu’appelle, Sask.) would have authorized Commons legal counsel to submit the Federal Court application filed last Friday, said his communications chief Heather Bradley. Ms. Bradley had no other information available after the controversy exploded on Tuesday with The Halifax Chronicle Herald report about the court move.

Parliamentary privilege should not be overused

An odd by-blow of the F-35 fighter-jet controversy illustrates why the courts should not usually be resorted to in order to uphold the political principles of the unwritten constitution. In this instance, an injunction action by the House of Commons against the Auditor-General of Canada would hardly be likely to cast any additional light on military-procurement practices. Excessive punctiliousness can be a mere distraction.

Commons, Senate Audit Expected Next Week From Auditor General Michael Ferguson

OTTAWA — The auditor general is expected to deliver his report card on the efficient administration of the House of Commons and Senate next week.

Auditor general Michael Ferguson’s office is still hashing out the details of the report’s release with both chambers but plans to release the potentially controversial audit before Parliament rises for the summer break.

MPs fought tooth and nail against the audit in 2010 when then-auditor general Sheila Fraser proposed it. MPs argued their internal mechanisms and independent audits by professional firms were sufficient and Fraser’s watchful eye was unnecessary.

Auditor-General hits back at critics, defends scathing F-35 report

The Auditor-General is blasting critics of his report on the Harper government’s stealth fighter program.

Michael Ferguson made a repeat appearance Tuesday before the Commons public accounts committee, saying he stands behind the facts and figures in his April 3 audit, which set off a heated political debate.

“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,” the Auditor-General told the all-party committee.

His report accuses National Defence of hiding the full cost of the F-35 program by not publicly reporting $10-billion in operational expenses and criticizes Public Works for not demanding more justification for the sole-source purchase.

Border controls need better monitoring: CBSA, Health Canada should work more closely, says AG

Controls on commercial imports at the border are generally working, but in a small percentage of cases some missing policies, miscommunication and sloppy record-keeping are hurting the ability of the Canada Border Services Agency and other federal departments to target shipments of potentially dangerous goods coming into Canada, according to the auditor general’s report released last week.

“We found monitoring problems with controls reserved for higher-risk items, such as pharmaceuticals and pest control products,” Auditor General Michael Ferguson told reporters after the release of his first report on April 3.

His office’s audit of border controls examined Canada Border Services Agency as well as Health Canada, the Canada Food Inspection Agency, Natural Resources and Transport Canada—four entities with a stake in making sure imported goods don’t hurt the health and safety of Canadians.

The five departments spent $200-million on border safety programs in 2010-2011, according to the audit.

The audit found that while in “most cases” products potentially harmful to Canadians’ health and safety were “adequately controlled” when they reached the border, administrative oversights and a lack of policies resulted in some potentially dangerous products getting through.

F-35 fiasco: No lipstick helps this pig

CANADIANS learned two key things about the controversial F-35 fighter jet procurement project this week.

First, they found out the military kept senior civil servant decision-makers and Parliament in the dark about the true estimated costs of the multibillion-dollar project to replace Canada’s aging CF-18s, and that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government didn’t press hard enough for answers as credible doubts arose about the program.

Second, they learned that at least Auditor General Michael Ferguson — who blew the whistle on the astonishingly inept handling of the fighter jet purchase in his report this week — can be critical of Ottawa’s handling of this matter without being childishly accused by overzealous Conservatives, including the prime minister, of not supporting the troops.

The auditor general’s stinging critique makes a mockery of the Conservatives’ repeated claims that the F-35 procurement process was on sound footing. Perhaps even worse, the Tories now look incompetent for stubbornly refusing to see what was in front of their eyes — that there was no way on Earth, despite Ottawa’s insistence otherwise, that the cost per plane could be $75 million when available data pointed to a price closer to almost twice that.

Auditor-General Michael Ferguson prepared to hit high-flying Conservatives

OTTAWA—It’s a safe bet that Jim Flaherty’s first majority budget will be consigned to political afterthought at some point this week.

There will be some bad news delivered to public servants beginning as early as Monday.

Down the road, you will likely see more ads on CBC television and be subjected to ads on its radio service.

Environmentalists who quite rightly shout at the pro-pipeline, opponents be damned, ideology of the Harper government will be labelled at each turn as impediments to jobs and prosperity.

We will learn to live without the penny and OAS changes are too many years, and elections, down the road to spark any real dissent.

But for a frustrated opposition looking to poke holes in Flaherty’s latest effort, a gift that keeps on giving may again be coming from the skies.

The first report from Auditor-General Michael Ferguson is due Tuesday and, unless the Conservatives have done a masterful job of sanitizing a draft which had been circulating through official Ottawa, it is going to heap a bunch more woe on the government’s worst managed file.

Tories concerned AG would be perceived as partisan appointment

OTTAWA -- Newly appointed Auditor General Michael Ferguson was pilloried for not being able to speak French, but government documents reveal the Conservatives were also concerned its choice for auditor general would be perceived as a partisan appointment.

Notes to Treasury Board President Tony Clement indicate the Conservatives were prepared to defend newly-appointed auditor Michael Ferguson beyond the attacks they were already fending off concerning his inability to communicate in both official languages.

"Although no one has made this criticism, the Opposition might claim the appointment is partisan," emails released under Access to Information read.
The concern was three-fold.

A line could be drawn, the emails read, between Prime Minister Stephen Harper's choice and the fact that Conservative New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord appointed Ferguson to auditor general of the province.

Alternatively, that line could go from Harper to the fact that Ferguson was "very critical" of the Liberal Shawn Graham government, or to the fact that he was appointed deputy finance minister by another Conservative New Brunswick Premier, David Alward.