Treasury Board Chairman Reg Alcock would really appreciate it if we'd all be a lot more careful with our language in discussing the sponsorship scandal and the popularly reported figure of $100 million that seems to have gone astray.
"It is not $100 million. It is some figure quite a bit less than that. The Auditor General herself is having difficulty figuring it out," said Alcock during question period.Speaking to reporters later on Alcock elaborated:
But he said that the Auditor-General herself does not know how much of that $100 million was actually misspent.I think Alcock may have a point so I'm going to try and restate the situation with this in mind.In her report released last week, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser concluded that "over" $100 million of the $250 million sponsorship program went to "communication agencies as fees and commissions." She also said, "Public servants broke the rules in selecting communications agencies for the government's advertising activities."
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However, Alcock said that Fraser's findings are not conclusive that $100 million was misappropriated."There is some number between zero and $100 million that is at question here," he said.
Somewhere between 0 and $100 million of taxpayers' money has been misappropriated and this is a problem because it means that elected officials, civil servants and highly placed appointees in Crown corporations may have engaged in activity that is somewhere between dishonest and corrupt and may in fact be somewhere between illegal and criminal.
How's that, Reg?
Alcock had something else to say that was worthy of comment:
And Alcock denied that the prime minister or members of the Liberal caucus were using spin in their handling of the crisis that has hit the government.Upon reflection, I'd have to say that this is somewhere between drivel and a steaming pile of crap."If you're saying there's some sort of strategy, I don't quite know what you're talking about," he told one reporter. "I'm telling you I don't have this sense of strategy."
He described the prime minister as a different kind of no-spin politician who reporters were not used to covering.
"You guys are all used to dealing with old politicians. You're looking inside this for spin," he said. "You've never seen a politician or prime minister stand up as openly as this one does. So he's being criticized for not being an old-fashioned politician and spinning you."
