The issue was whether to book $21.8 million in computer expenses run up by the gun registry in the fiscal year then coming to an end.
Had the money been reported to Parliament as part of the yearly spending estimates, it would have put the troubled registry over budget and forced then-public safety minister Anne McLellan to ask Parliament for additional funds — a political embarrassment just as the Liberals were about to call an election.
John Wiersema, then acting comptroller general, told the Commons public accounts committee he was present when Bloodworth voiced her opposition to any such move.
“Madam Bloodworth indicated that she was unable to recommend that the minister seek supplementary estimates because it would have implications for the pending federal election,” said Wiersema.
“At that point it was clear to me that it was political considerations that (were) the determining factor in that meeting.”
Conservative MP John Williams asked Bloodworth, in general terms, whether it was true she had invoked “political considerations” at the meeting.
The veteran bureaucrat offered a one-word response: “No.”
Kate! A Liberal appointed mandarine LYING?!!! Say it ain’t so!
Kate! A Liberal appointed Ottawa mandarin LYING?!!! About the sacred gun registry to boot!
Say it ain’t so, Kate!
oopsie, double post. sorry sorry.
not lying–just vying for the best fictional writing of the year. Or the Leacock award–Liberals don’t lie, do they? Of course not–just ask them–and don’t worry, they will pay everything back–
she got promoted . she is now the #2 Silly Servant in the Fed Gov’t.
PS Why do the hallways of all the civil service offices have a stripe painted down the middle ??
so that the people leaving early won’t bump into those arriving late
As the whole gun-registry fiasco continues to unravel, it is even more evident that it will be necessary to take a good look at the bureaucracy, government-wide.
Reduction in sheer size should be combined with a thorough housecleaning of politically biased or agenda-driven senior mandarins.
Altogether too much regulatory power has devolved to unelected, unaccountable, faceless senior bureaucrats.
Government is like cancer; Although there is no cure, all efforts should be made to keep it as small as possible!
Time for some “health care” for the State…
What I find strange about this story is how none of the Conservative MPs on the committee — not one — demanded answers from Bloodworth. Could it be that, having been promoted by PMSH, she is now off limits? Funny how that happens.
Personally, I’m just very glad that it is going away! It appears like this registry is in its death throws and taking its last gasping breaths. I can’t believe how close we came to having this thing shoved down our throats forever. I would be happy to see Allan Rock or Anne Mclellan answer for this abomination but I doubt they ever will.
A billion dollars swallowed up in a Maritime make work program and a cash cow for Liberal friendly Computer companies. How much more money syphoned off into Cayman or Swiss accounts to magically appear at Liberal election campaigns for years to come. I think this is why Chretien was so quick to pass the political contribution changes. He knew that the Liberal party would be flush with cash for many years to come and at the same time starve the opposition parties of cash to run their campaigns.
I won’t shed a tear when this registry is finally put to rest. I’d love to show up at the wake and dance on its grave.
Daniel
cost overrun’s ….
If that was in the private sector you would most likley not to be in the line-up at Timmies in the morning..
Then you have a liberal senator manage to scam over 23,000 from the taxpayer…
Oh ya forgot he has been expelled from the liberal party with a promise to pay it back, the joke of it all is that it cost the taxpayer over 80,000 to recover 23,000.
Real good business sense there!!
But he will most likely keep his out of wack Paycheck & Pension.
Again The Taxpayer Screwed..
That could be a great blog of the day contest, Can you name how many times the Taxpayer’s have been screwed in the last 13yrs???
Wow. I feel sorry for those liberal senators when the next election rolls around. The people will surely render judgement as is appropriate in a democracy.
Hey, wait a minute……
I hope that when the registry dies an un-natural death the CPC also destroys the database of those currently registered. We don’t need more info for criminals to use as a shopping list or more databases on honest citizens in a government computer somewhere!
Although the talk always seems to center around the cost over runs this boondoggle created, there is a much darker side. The fear and loathing the whole GC package created in those deemed Liberal Enemies will go down in history. The raids after dark by the GC Swat team, the banckrupting burden of court cases (only to have the Judge hand the seized guns back to the owner with an apology), the visits after dark “to inspect your storage compliance” (happened to a friend of mine 4 times in 6 months)… I could go on forever.
For my part, I began to feel some pretty disloyal thoughts for this country (almost moved south), something that is disturbing for someone who has served in her Armed Forces, from a family who has served for generations.
Gunney99
Hey Gunny
Glad you are still with us! I think many of us were considering a change of location if the Liberals had stayed in power much longer, and for a variety of reasons. I am so heartened to see so many positive changes in such a short amount of time. I never expected them to get so much accomplished in a minority government situation. Long live Prime Minister Stephen Harper!
Daniel
I watched part of the Public Accounts meeting on CPAC -Shawn Murphy is the chair and it appeared to me that he was out for Blood(worth). Hummm?
Hell Gunney, I did move south. Ten mostly enjoyable years, marred only by the INS and their infernal incompetence. There’s a reason why 10 million people are illegal immigrants down there, and the INS is it.
Leaving didn’t help. Here I am, back home. We won’t win the battle against Leftist tyranny by running away. For now the CPC is the way to win. We keep ’em honest and take it one step at a time, we can get our Canada back from the Liberals.
Anne McLellan and Reg Alcock went on a cross-country tour during the 2004 election trumpeting that gun registry costs would be capped at $25 million a year. It seems that they may have been lying.
In the Guite trial it was revealed that he gave $450,000 in contracts “for no work” to GroupAction to promote the Gun Registry.
SOOOOOO one assumes that there will be further audits, further criminal investigations since Gomery had only a very very limited mandate to investigate pilfered money from the Sponsorship fund and NO mandate to investigate Paul Martin’s piggybank- Polling firms.
Who else here thinks that there has been lots of investigations behind the scenes by the Conservaives and we have only seen the very tip of the iceburg. I’m thinking that Paul Martin knew his own hands were clean on Chretien’s pilfer pot, the Quebec sponsorship so that is all he let Gomery look at under very restictive parameters.
Time to peel back the layers of deceipt and deception on the Martinites…and by the way they insanely defended this Gun registry raises suspicions the Liberals hid a pretty big slush fund in this dispicable and wasteful program.
NOW the Liberals are having trouble raising money the legal way. Wonder why -the old Liberal pilfer pots are no longer available to them. However, there must be a bunch of ad agencies, consultants, computer contractors who still have untold millions still “owing” to the Liberal party – will be interesting to see how they get around the rules to “donate” this money.
Interesting times huh?
Lorraine, I and I think a lot of others would also like to see how deep the corruption ran in the Liberal party. If it can be ascertained that they have been elected in the past elections by using ‘illegal’ funds then it behooves the present government to bring this before the Canadian electorate and show us just how we have been duped. The Canadian taxpayer deserves to know the truth, and we don’t want scapegoats like Guite and Brault, we want the elected officials that allowed this to happen.
It absolutely boggles the mind that the government in an effort to hide the ovrrun in the gun registry budget felt it necessary to get a legal opinion to cover their tracks. Normally there would be no question that proper accounting principles and the financial administration act would be followed and therefore the costs of $39 million in 2003 and $21 million in 2004 would have been booked. However, the Liberals in their own sleazy way attempted to hide the cost overrun from parliament through a legal opinion which can be obtained to justify virtually any position required. They hid the costs no doubt about and Bloodworth should be fired if she in fact was the one who authorized the hiding of the expenses. Otherwise we might just as well forget about accountability.
Didn’t Guite get his start on his life in crime, I mean civil service, much the same way? By passing from government to government? I know help is hard to find these days but…
Maybe Ms. Bloodworth’s a victim like Shirley Heafey, the lawyer who chaired the RCMP Public Complaints Commission and claims the Liberals tried to shut her up. Or what about the Guite witness who was scared of having a hunting accident in his living room?
Some day I’d like to know how the Liberals managed to delay the most recent AG’s report on the Gun registry.
The Phantom :
Good post. Vigilance is indispensable in the morass of basically 40 years of forced collectivization , with a caste system engendered by these immoral idiots.
All to put themselves above the law to loot the very people who entrusted them with there sweat & work in the form of taxes.
As well the betrayal of those who gave them power to run our lives as a trust.
As Joe Volope represents. They have learned nothing!!!
Perhaps Ms. Bloodworth is the conduit of information that the Conservatives have tapped into to find out what was actually going on inside the corrupt regime. She may yet at some future date have key testimony to give against PM and JC.
She did receive a promotion.
Just a thought
Daniel
Daniel, we live in hope.
Hope is a good thing! Particularly when you consider the alternative, the opposite of Hope is despair. I’m thinking many of us experienced some of that this past thirteen years!
Daniel
Let me be the first critisize the new conservative gun registry.
Before the last election, I queried our local MP about conservative plans to ‘scrap the registry.’ I asked him what they planned to do…what would happen to the data already collected, how much would this cost etc. He had no answer. It was as if they hadn’t thought about the practical requirements of their campaign…
Needless to say, my guns are registered, and now I find out that the C’s have given all of the info to the RCMP…there are no checks anymore (they don’t have to ask anyone for the records) nor is there any documentation when they cops go snooping into those records.
Why is it that there is no hue and cry from those who voted them into power?
The gun registry isn’t in its’ death throes…they’ve made it even worse.