The first paragraph from the 2002 report should have left little surprise at what was coming;
The Department of Justice Canada did not provide Parliament with sufficient information to allow it to effectively scrutinize the Canadian Firearms Program and ensure accountability. It provided insufficient financial information and explanations for the dramatic increase in the cost of the Program.
Today, Sheila Fraser revealed that information was insufficient for a reason – the Liberals were cooking the books;
The former Liberal government hid more than $60 million in unexpected costs from Parliament, left no written record of important decisions taken by officials, and may have broken numerous contracting rules in its handling of the controversial gun registry, Auditor General Sheila Fraser has found.
The Canadian Firearms Program, which the Conservatives are expected to start dismantling, perhaps as early as today, has incurred $87.3 million in startup costs since 2002 – three times the budgeted amount – for a computer system that does not yet work, Fraser revealed in her long-awaited report.
She found that Parliament was “misinformed” about the true costs of the registry. Of the computer startup costs, $60.8 million – $39 million in 2002-03 and $21.8 million in 2003-04 – was not brought to Parliament for proper approval in contravention of the government’s own accounting policies.
“Had these costs been properly recorded, the Canadian Firearms Centre would have had to seek additional funds (from Parliament) or would have overspent the authorized cap on its spending,” Fraser said in her opening remarks to reporters. “We consider this a serious matter for Parliament’s attention, because the ability of the House of Commons to approve government spending is fundamental to Parliament’s control of the public purse.”
Report is here.
Update: Andrew Coyne cuts to the core;
This was not a mere failure of oversight. These were not rogue bureaucrats, or junior party officials. These were decisions taken at the top levels of government, by ministers and their advisers. And while responsibility for the sponsorship scandal could arguably be laid at the feet of Jean Chretien, the Auditor-General says the phony accounting happened on both Mr. Chretien’s and Paul Martin’s watches.
[…]
[N]either the public or Parliament had any knowledge of the overrun, or the misreporting, until it was too late. It was a deliberate act of deception, a calculated defiance of Parliament, and a fraud upon the public. That the program was also catastrophically mismanaged is, in the circumstances, almost an afterthought.
. . and the system still doesn’t work . . . cool eh, not only steal the money but screw up the work.
Sounds like our health care “system”
Heads should role, many heads.
I note that as of 12:25 pacific time the CBC has yet to report the auditor Generals findings. It is long overdue for that organization to be audited. If it wasn’t for the public need to be ignorant of political activity in Canada the reports would be a step forward in our search for a democracy
Right, melwide – as of 4pm Eastern Daylight Time – there’s not a word on the CBC website. They have a reference – that the MPs have rejected Harper’s nomination for the Accountability commission – but nothing about the AG’s report.
The Toronto Star has a headline saying only the the ‘Gun registry ran up significant costs’. Doesn’t sound too nefarious, does it?
The National Post says that the ‘former Liberal government hid more than 60 millions’.
And the G&M actually says that they ‘cooked the books’.
However, CBC and CTV television are carrying reports about the gun registry and can’t get out of the facts that it’s a travesty.
It will be interesting to see how Duffy and Newman enable the Liberals to slither out of it all, and somehow, blame Harper..for..well..Oh- and the US for making guns.
2002 eh.
Remind me again who the finance minister was at the time?
Wasn’t he asked to resign/was fired on June 2 of that year (the reason for which is yet to be revealed…just like these figures have been till today).
Remind me who the finance minister was at the time.
I also recall that when Fraser tabled that report in May of 2002, he lost his job for some reason. Nobody seems to agree on whether he was fired or actually resigned.
This latest from the AG would suggest that if the PM of the time knew these facts it would be the former.
Sorry double post.
Oh now we watch a bunch of civil servants fired, and payed out their severance packages when they should be in jail. Add that to the money already squirreled away — er I mean lost — to setting up and running this registry. It makes me want to puke.
The CBC is now reporting that the Gun Registry is approved of by all police, and that it is accessed by all the police, and here it comes, 5,000 times a day, as they search for ‘who has guns’.
Please, bloggers, get the word out. This 5,000 meme is pure garbage; it’s junk. Doesn’t anyone stop to think???
If you ask questions about guns 5,000 times a day, which is 35,000 times a week, you are stating that there are that many gun-related crimes in Canada! There aren’t; there are 15,000 per year.
That 5,000 hits is an automatic computer-generated hit on the full data base of records. If you run a red light, if your corner store is robbed, if your child’s carseat isn’t buckled down, that data-base will be hit. But the hit has nothing to do about actual gun-crimes; it’s just an automatic computer hit.
Does this really surprise anyone? I don’t think anyone will be truly content until justice is done. I think the Right Honourable (?) Jean Chretien and Paul Martin need to stand forward and tell us more details… Gomery II, anyone?
“The “red flag” contracts include those worth less than $25,000 – exempting them from a competitive bidding process – whose value subsequently increased by 150 per cent; properly awarded contracts whose value increased significantly; and “fixed-price” contracts awarded in 2001 and 2002 that had no measurable goal and no record of a product being delivered.”
hmmm…contracts awarded and no product being delivered…
That sounds so familiar…but I just, I just can’t seem to place it at the moment…
Too bad Ms. Fraser lumped in the Pre-Columbian (aka Native) affair’s scandalous accounting report in with the registry report. It needs to be singled out.
“That 5,000 hits is an automatic computer-generated hit on the full data base of records.”
means nil . . hits on a system that doesn’t work means the results are useless & can’t be trusted.
CBC . . . shilling for the loonie left.
It gets worse–the Police Association President stated today that 50% of the info on the ‘database’ is false–20% of the renewal registrations sent out this year were returned to the centre because no such person existed at that address! Many guns do not have a registration number so the Firearms Registry just sent a sticker to be placed on the gun–hoping that it would be an honest criminal that stole it and did not remove the sticker. Makes the Keystone Cops look like Einsteins? All this for a cool $2B
You would think the Liberals would be embarrassed, wouldn’t you. Well, you’d be wrong.
Speaking of computer systems, somewhere along the way I saw that a $257 million contract was awarded to EDS and CGI.
I have worked for 2 of Canada’s largest financial institutions, both with customers in the millions, and therefore at the very least on the same scale as the gun registry, and I have never heard of a project that even approaches that number – not even close.
But I’m just a guy who presses keys to make the code (and the mistakes, ‘natch!). Are there any IT project managers/execs in the house who can boast of a project in the same range as the gun registry? Of an order of magnitude less?
Theft of money is agreed upon by everyone, now there is more evidence of fraud – what happened to the rule of law??? Are Liberals simply above the law??? Disgusting.
Finance Minister matters, for sure, but it is actually the Treasury Board and the head Bureaucrat that are really responsible for the implementation.
Paulie knew, thats why he resigned, he knew the crap that was coming down the pipe. Shame on the bureaucracy for letting their political masters hide the evidence. Many senior bureaucrats should be in trouble and/or finding their evidence that they were ordered to by the PMO…hello choo choo man…
I am equally puzzled about the cost of the software development. Can any IT professional explain why some kind of off the shelf system couldn’t have been used. Or perhaps licencing the software maintained by a provincial Motor Vehicles Branch and making some minor modifications? Chevrolet = Smith & Wesson, etc.
http://www.theinfozone.net/SALW/Canada.html#AlbinaGuarnieri
In 2004, Albina Guarnieri was tasked with reporting on the gun registry.
It looks like that report, declared a cabinet secret by the Liberals should have Conservatives searching for it and comparing the solutions that hidden report offered, and see how they compare to what the Conservatives now want to do.
Politically, the Liberals would look even more incompetent if those solutions were ignored.
TIZ
I don’t get it. The gun registry was suposed to cost two million. Where are all the cost over-runs 21m, 39m, 60m and missing 60m comming from? If the cost is now over 1B where did the 998m go? I’ve herd the term bull shit baffels brains, I may even have used it a time or two, but this seems to be well beyond that.
Um… I don’t see any URL for trackbacking, so for now I’ll just drop my post URL on the same topic here:
The Smoking Gun: The Liberals$ Lied, The Gun Registry Died
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2006/05/smoking-gun-liberals-lied-gun-registry.html
Well, is anyone really surprised to learn (officially) that the Librano$ fecked up the gun registry, apparently to enrich their cronies via contracts that ballooned up to 150% over their original cost (which was low enough to exempt them from competitive bidding)?
One thing we can say: perhaps they’re not as stupid as they seem. Perhaps the stupidity is an act… maybe they’re criminal geniuses… who knows?
If they’ve done this sort of thing with everything in the government, just think of all the billions we’ll save once it’s all brought to an end! Just imagine!
No more paying for work that was never done! No more hundred-dollar pizzas! No more $700 lunches! No more envelopes full of cash, stained with marinara sauce! No more gum, nor half-million-dollar checks for David “I’m entitled to my entitlements” Dingwall! No more Librano$$$$$!
It’s morning in Canada!
Just another adscam-just like all the other adscams. HRDC, etc. etc.
Parliament was misinformed?
No shit?
So … what happens now?
Nothing?
No shit?
Why the hell am I honest?
*&#$*&@#$#@#* %*@#*&%$##@!*& Liberals!
They make me sick.
Round up the whole lot of them, and toss them in jail where they belong.
Bloody arrogant criminals.
Say again?
Only in Canada can someone steal nearly the GDP of a small African country and the MSM doesnt even report with disgust.
CBCpravda still harping about vote buying in the big cities.surely even they will realize that the libs didnt win the last election.
they havent reported yet that PEI will suffer the biggest loss because thats where the libs bought the votes with the gun registry. Of course according to Peter Pansbridge- the fantasy news anchor – conservatives where shutout of PEI and liberals were shut out of Alberta – that makes the election even.
Liberals in stripes!
If Canadians do not see librano$$$ in striped jumpers perpwalking for the cameras it wil be very difficult to take any form of government seriously in this country.
If they get away with this,…again, why pay tax?
Why be honest if the money is just stolen?
Joe Canuck, Come to my house and I’d love to prepare you a VERY special country meal to make you really sick. As Sir John A. once said, “YOU make me sick…)
I’m a Liberal, a law-abiding citizen, with very modest habits and I AM SICK OF YOU TRYING TO WIN A MAJORITY with the same attacks and smears that got Conservatives the present minority. The grassroot members of my party are energized to support the new leaders and the renewal of our commitment to an inclusive society.
I read your nonsense all over the blogosphere and needed to puke back. Guess I’m a troll now.
What legal advice, exactly, were the Liberals given, that ‘encouraged’ them to use millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money without reporting its use to parliament?
Will those lawyers be asked to explain themselves in court, any court, any committee, anywhere?
Who, exactly, benefitted from the legal advice?
The job is not finished yet, sorting where that money was used.
Emily, the auditor general does not act for the Consevatives. She is independent and she has issued a report that indicates that the Liberals misled Parliament. This in itself is a serious charge and should make all “law-abiding” citizens sick. There are also findings that some of the contracts for under $25,000 and therfore exempt from the bidding process were in fact paid out at significantly higher amounts. The auditor general will be investigating these contracts. There is a pattern here that resembles what occurred in the Gomerey inquiry. It seems like your inclusive society only includes friends of the Liberal party.
Did anyone else see Greg Westin on Mike Stuffy Live tonight? ‘Couldn’t get himself to connect the word Liberal with corruption. Westin talked about “mistakes.”
What the H—? There seems to be no outrage in the MSM, let alone in the Librano$, who are slipping, sliding, smirking, and spinning all over the place. Stuffy had ex-Deputy PM Anne MacMillan on for **&^%$#@!&*’s sake: She’s old news, past her sell-buy date, and safe, I guess.
Heads need to roll, careers need to be on the line, people need to go to jail–well, where do I think I am? In a country that honours law and order? THIS IS CANADA.
Oh yeah.
Please: No Gomery II!! Gomery I uncovered only the cess pool, it didn’t dredge it.
I was very disappointed in Gomery’s final report, where he exonerated Paul Martin. It seemed clear to me that he, too, was in the Librano$ pocket.
Now that we’ve got Sheila Fraser’s report, isn’t it time to finally DO something about all this thieving and thuggery?
Just don’t ask Gomery back!
Emily..
“Attacks and smears”? are you sure you do not have the wrong party? Seems to me that it was just this tactic that your beloved liberals used for many years to maintain their hold on government.Can you actually post with a straight face and tell us that the libs were not fearmongering in regards to PMSH
and his so called “hidden agenda”?
Perhaps it was just this fear of what would be found in those audits which really had the Libs sweating.I imagine they would have tried everything in their power to hold on to office just for that very reason..
Don’t shoot the messenger,save your bolt for the now glue factory bound liars and criminals that you so evidently support..
Emily, to release the TRUTH is not an “attack” or a “smear”. What your people do IS attack and smear regular folk like myself.
And your party is NOT one of inclusion. Not at all. It’s a party of bigotry, proven to have practiced racism and sexism in at least civil service hiring practices. It’s full of anti-Semites, Christianophobes, anti-Americans, etc…
It made Canada a safe haven for Islamic terrorists and for communist Chinese spies, not to mention facilitating organized crime and violent gangs of all sorts.
Compassion and tolerance? Sure, and Tinkerbell just flew out of my bum.
We’re not impressed with your repeating the same tired old leftist lines. Neither are most Canadians, for they’ve heard it for years and years and found it to be nonsense, which is why we won and you lost.
Thank goodness the dangerous radicals who call themselves “Liberals” were dethroned by Canadians who woke up and smelled the corruption!
Thank goodness we live in a democracy!
“…the signature of former prime minister Jean Chretien at the bottom of a Treasury Board request to finance the sponsorship program.”
AdScam Chretien/Martin: Librano$.
Theft of taxpayers’ money by Liberals.
Where are the criminal charges? Where are the Mounties? Where is Justice Minister Toews?
The evidence is overwhelming for criminal charges to be laid against the Librano$.
When will criminal charges be brought forth? …
Canadian Taxpayers Federation- Gun Registry
“……..The auditor-general found the Canada Firearms Centre made progress in disclosing its spending. However, she also found that whenever gun registry costs ballooned beyond what Parliament had authorized, or above what the government had publicly promised, the true amounts were hidden from legislators and the public,” said CTF federal director John Williamson. “This represents a serious breach of Parliament’s constitutional authority to approve program spending. … via newsbeat1.com
….
When Guite cross-examined Conway, he made two points with the help of only two pieces of paper.
Guite pointed to the signature of former prime minister Jean Chretien at the bottom of a Treasury Board request to finance the sponsorship program.
Guite asked Conway if it was normal the prime minister would personally sign such a document.
“It’s extremely unusual,” said Conway, a top civil servant at Public Works. “In fact I have never seen it.” Les Perreaux(CP) via cnews
I am waiting for Mr.Harper to announce a probe.
Those involved in this scandal(for that is clearly what it is)must be held accountable!We CANNOT miss this opportunity to clearly warn all those with their hands in the trough, NO MORE!!
Oh,and one more thing,a pox on all the broadcasters who would dare spin these happenings into a “Harper wrong to kill registry”headline instead of focusing on the story that Canadians MUST NEVER FORGET.Billions have been pissed away and stolen through the Liberal’s many scandals.We all know for a FACT that millions have been traced directly to the party,yet not one proud member has yet to face ANY consequences.Canadian values my ass!
Canadian Sentinel; Well said! This should make every tax payer sick. We have all been aware for sometime that it was bad, but how much more clear does it get? LIBERALS COOKED THE BOOKS!
Law-abiding citizens are naturally sickened by the betrayal of the few that led to the smearing of many and the exhuberant war cries from blogging conservatives angling for a majority.
Straightfaced, I can tell you that the hidden agenda exists and is being implemented in what our PM thinks are digestible increments. No national visions such as an equitable childcare program, a decentralized federal government that will certainly erase the national vision with which we have grown up. In my riding in Eastern Ontario, a great number have low literacy, low incomes;there is high violence and sexual abuse, poor physical and mental health and little individual strength to cope with such needs as childcare in a profit-oriented world with $100 a month (before taxes). Despite revulsion for bad-handling of tax-payers’ money, we also have no clue as to how conservative policies will take away life support systems that are used to a greater degree here than in your community and that is why a conservative represents us in Ottawa. This PM didn’t have us in mind when he played to the arena crowd.
Just watched Wayne Easter (Liberano from PEI) trying to tell the world that they were heros in getting the gun registry over runs under control. Twit.
And Emily, sorry but there were more than a few. Knowing and pretending not to see still makes you guilty.
So Emily, how do you justify the lieberals angling for a majority in any election? Presumably you’re sickened by that, too? If not, you are wilfully hypocritical, a mere mouthpiece of the party. As has been stated previously, liberalism is a mental disease. You appear to have a bad case of it
Here we go again with the silly “hidden agenda” nonsense.
Geez… all those problems: doesn’t Emily realize that since the Libranos were in power for thirteen long years, it was them that oversaw their worsening? And did nothing to help it? All they cared about was exploiting Canada and Canadians for their own personal gain, no matter what the cost.
And that cost inluded national unity. Remember the ’95 separation referendum? They twiddled their thumbs and whistled past the confederal graveyard. And then there was the whole Adscam thing whereas they stole money and used it to lie to Quebeckers with unfettered, cavalier impunity.
And they offended Alberta and the West to such a degree that the separation movement was really gathering momentum at an alarming rate…
Emily, about that monster in your closet…
And about your willing support of those crooks who only care for themselves and wish the people would just think as they’re told and vote as they’re told…
And save the canned leftist rhetoric. We’ve heard it all before.
There’s no defending the Liberal Party of Canada anymore. It’s thoroughly disgraced and should be euthanized.
“In my riding in Eastern Ontario, a great number have low literacy, low incomes;there is high violence and sexual abuse, poor physical and mental health and little individual strength to cope with such needs as childcare in a profit-oriented world with $100 a month (before taxes).”
Seeing as your beloved Liberals have held power for most of the last century … it’s the Cons fault? Riiiiiiggghhhht!
Seriously, you’re having us on, right? I mean nobody writes this stuff and means it.
“National vision?” Why don’t you just call it by its real name – socialism.
“Profit-oriented world?” Who uses that kind of terminology?
Emily,
Are you for real? Equitable childcare that excludes people like my sister who prefers the care of her children by a next door neighbor? Low literacy rates, low productivity, lower world competitiveness and after 13 years of Liberal rule you think PRIME MINISTER Harper has no vision? You remind me of the rabble that forced me and many of my family members away from the Liberal party and firmly into the arms of the Conservatives.
The Liberal party is not the choice of average hard working Canadians. It is not liked at all by average Quebecois. The Liberals are the political party of choice for those persons predisposed to dishonesty, entitlement, abuse of power, moral corruption and ethnic separation.
Damn it kursk, I’m still waiting for PMSH to implement the “hidden agenda”. Don’t tell me the Liberals lied to me again. 🙂
Two things make me ill about this scam, adscam, etc. First; I just sent in my tax return (cheque attached). The second is the thought of all the provincial politicians, Premeiers, and big-city Mayors, in charge of our municipal tax monies, who so publicly supported the Liberals in the past few elections.
I don’t buy for a seconnd that the timing of this report wasn’t buried on purpose and that bureaucrats are solely to blame.
Will we hear some defense/explanations from the contractors and bureaucrats blamed?
Emily actually is partially right….yes it will be doled out in digestible increments. Yes Emily it will be very painful to be a Liberal supporter because over the next six to 9 months new revelations of Liberal waste, diversion and dissembling will be be revealed.
The problem is it will be true. And it will remind Canadians about the true depth the rot had got to. A new leader doesnt change a thing. The supporters who willingly suspend disbelief while the magi make money disappear for THEIR benefit, not the benefit of the undereducated, undertrained, overworked and residents of Eastern Ontario you claim to be apart of.
By the way, where is your Liberal provincial government to assist you?
Anyway, it will be a striptease but these revelations will come out and there will be an investigation and there will be charges.
Not all Liberal supporters were dirty, but the leadership and infrastructure of the party was rotten. One short stint in opposition wont clean this. Only a near death experience where your party comes close to anhilation will cleanse the rot.
Just as Canada needed a vibrant option on the centre right it needs a vibrant option on the centre left. Right now that doesnt exist.
It will be slow and painful, that part you got right…
Liberals are corrupt and Harper is scary (not to mention related to Harris and Bush).
Same old; same old.
First, a cbc reporter said that the registry is hit 5000 times a YEAR, so that must be the truth as the cbc is so honest. Second, re the 1200/yr. That is on top of the 245.00/month that parents get with the child tax credit, that replaced the family allowance. The 245.00 increases at certain ages. I received my last check in April 2006, as my grandson turned 19. When my first child was born in 1954 the going rate per child was 5.00 per month. Where do all the libs get the idea that the family allowance was cancelled. Remember it used to be taxed, on the return of the highest income spouse. Since 1988, with 2 grandsons born in 1985/87, I received over 400./month. Very welcome money. How are the candidates for leader responding to the AGs report. The liberals will elect a new leader, but it is evident by liberal posters defending the libs, that the mindset of the liberal voter will continue to support crooks and corruption. No new leader will change what liberal voters think and accept as normal so to get elected he will have to be just as dishonest at martin and chretain. Maybe they are all hoping for some of that gravy money, or a senate job, or to be the next GG. At least in the states CEOs and govt officials go to jail.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/realitycheck/20060516sheppard.html
This link is to CBC’s ‘Indepth Reality Check’ and is so full of factual errors and straight out apologism for the Liberals.
My ‘favourite’ part is where he says if only $60 million is unaccounted for what’s the big deal.
Nevermind of course the sure-to-be-found contract problems or the outright misleading of parliament.
Someone could do a reality check on this reality check.