davec
Member
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=7f744959-cd1a-4746-af84-53957b01a6a0
Death knell for gun registry?
Allan Woods
CanWest News Service
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
OTTAWA - 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."
CanWest News Service reported the major findings of Fraser's audit last week, including that the source of the continuing problems with the gun registry continues to be a $273 million contract with Team Centra, a computer firm, that has been delayed since May 2002 because of myriad legislative changes, thanks to fierce opposition to the program and the scrutiny of opposition parties.
In general, Fraser said she found "satisfactory progress" in four of eight areas she audited in government.
She took aim at the military for its lack of progress in properly beefing up its ranks, reporting that despite recruiting 20,000 soldiers, the number of trained troops has increased by only 700.
As well, she castigated the government for once again failing to improve the lives of aboriginals and taking steps to counter the increasing misuse of prescription drugs.
On the financial side, she said the government is owed $18 billion in unpaid taxes.
Among the few positive notes in her report was her applause for the better management of federal grants.
Public Works Minister Michael Fortier ordered parts of the work on the gun registry contract to be stopped late last month, perhaps as a prelude to the new government's plans for the program.
Many of the revelations included in the audit have since been corrected by a new management team that took over the program in 2003.
"There are problems remaining," Fraser said. "There are problems with the second computer system that is being developed. There are problems with the quality of the information in the database. There are a few performance measures that need to be developed to show the outcomes, but quite frankly those sorts of problems are not atypical of the problems that exist in many government departments."
The Conservatives are expected to use the report to launch an attack on how the previous government conducted the business of trying to license and register millions of guns and gun owners in Canada.
The criticism that the Liberals are certain to face for their handling of the gun registry may not end with this report either. Fraser's report also reveals that her office is continuing to investigate the handling of a number of the 3,642 contracts awarded for work done on the registry.
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.
"The initial value of each contract was below the $25,000 limit, but the final values were much higher: $50,000, $107,000 and $319,431," the report said. "We will be reviewing these contracts in greater detail."
The auditor general's report also found that there is a lack of evidence to support the effectiveness of the gun registry, or to prove that it is meeting its stated goal of improving public safety.
"The performance report focuses on activities such as issuing licences and registering firearms. The Centre does not show how these activities help minimize risks to public safety with evidence-based outcomes such as reduced deaths, injuries and threats from firearms," the report said.
[email protected]