The Waste Watch - Government waste federal and provincial

[styky]

I came across a few older articles lately that mentioned John Williams Waste Watch. I had totally forgotten about it and wondered if anyone had continued on with this. If not then someone should. The information that came out of it was invaluable. If anyone knows of someone on-line that has carried on his work please post the link.

Here's the articles I'm referring to.......

Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go?

BY GLADYS POLLACK

Have you ever looked at your pay stub and wondered what happens to all that money you give to the federal government every month in the form of income tax?

Well, consider the following government expenses that have recently come to light:

While you were brown-bagging it, and probably working while gulping down your ham and cheese, our recently departed Privacy Commissioner, George Radwanski, may have been dining with a colleague at a posh Ottawa eatery at a cost to the taxpayer of $449.49. It seems Mr. Radwanski and his Director of Communications, Dona Vallières, must have had a lot to discuss last year. Over a one-year period, the two of them took each other out to lunch to the tune of $17,000 thanks to the public purse.

Dreaming of a trip to see Paris's Champs Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe? Well, Radwanski and Vallières probably saw a lot of the city during the two trips they made there together during a two week period. Cost? $30,000.

Just days before George Radwanski received his $210,000, political appointment as Privacy Commissioner, Revenue Canada, forgave all but one tenth of his $600,000 tax debt. (I bet most of you paid the tax man in full that year!!) Surely, with a salary of $210,000 plus perks (for instance, a $1,200 a month housing allowance), Radwanski could have had the opportunity to pay back his debt to the taxman. Resigning just days before he was about to be booted out, Radwanski received a $79,000 severance package.

But Radwanski hasn’t been the only big spender in Ottawa. The Hill Times, on July 14, 2003, reported that Liberal MP Dennis Mills spent a whopping $330,884 for office costs and travel in 2000-01. And last year, Canadian Alliance MP Stockwell Day spent $402,739.

Thank goodness we have Sheila Fraser, our Auditor General, checking the books. In her December 2002 report, she stated that Public Works and Government Service was still having problems planning public service accommodation and reminded us that our government spends $1.7 billion a year on office space to house our federal government bureaucrats. Said the Auditor General, “Frankly, given the long standing issue of proper planning, we would have expected the branch to have moved faster in correcting it [long-term planning]." With an ever-growing bureaucracy, some 248,000 civil servants in 2002, and such items as a $90 million museum to “showcase political history,” as well as a $200-million-plus tower being built on the western edge of Parliament Hill, the taxpayer no doubt hopes Public Works will one day get its act together.

Ms. Fraser provided further food for thought. With all those bureaucrats sitting in the Department of Human Resources Development Canada, there are still five million more social insurance cards in circulation in Canada than there are people. Imagine, one household received 225 cards before being investigated! Someone in HRDC seems to be asleep at the switch.

Are you feeling properly outraged? Well, hold on to your seat…or should I say pocketbook. Canadian Alliance MP John Williams recently found some real humdingers when it comes to Foreign Affairs and the spending of public money:......<a href=http://www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2003/09/taxdollar.html>continued</a>

=======================================

January 28, 2000

It’s Seriously Time for the Federal Department of Waste
With the revelations of a billion missing dollars – if not three billion – at the department of Human Resources (HRDC), combined with the latest edition of John Williams Waste Watch report, not to mention years of Auditors General reports that chronicle billions in mismanaged tax dollars, the time has come for a new federal department, the Department of Waste.

Now while you may think this the mere raving of a taxpayer advocate, it is actually a suggestion with some merit. Organizations in the public and private sector alike are rethinking their departmental and management structures.

Departments of Personnel are now called Departments of Human Resources. Directors of Organizational Review are now referred to as Change Management Leaders.

So why not do the same for the federal government? HRDC doles out CPP, OAS, EI and other types of assistance cheques each year. Let’s just call it the Department of Assistance. National Defence, the RCMP, customs and excise officers and CSIS could be regrouped in a new Department of Security. Finance, the Revenue folks, Treasury Board and other similar units could be consolidated into the Department of Money, and on it could go......<a href=http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=264>Continued</a>

[styky]

bump

[styky]

This is the last posting I could find of it but it's undated.

http://www.chp.ca/WasteReport/Waste5.htm

We need to see if someone is continuing where he left off. Or is it that no one cares anymore where their tax dollar goes.

[styky]

Here's another page to wet your whistle....but these are more than 5 years old folks plenty has filtered through hands since then. But how much.

http://www.johnwilliams.ca/wastereport.htm

[styky]

Take note of these figures.....

Travel Expense Details
For: Daniel Watson - Sr. Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy & Strategic Direction
Purpose: United Nations committee on the eliminiation of racial discrimination
Date(s): 2007-02-17 to 2007-02-22
Destination(s): Geneva, Switzerland
Commercial Flight: $2,109.05
Chartered Flight: $0.00
* Government Aircraft: $0.00
Other Transportation: $59.41
Accommodation: $797.55
Meals and Incidentals: $583.46
Other: $0.00
TOTAL : $3,549.47
http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/exprpts/s ... -t6_e.html


Now look at these

Travel Expense Details
For: Daniel Watson - Sr. Assistant Deputy Minister, Policy & Strategic Direction
Purpose: Business trip various meetings with Deputy Minister
Date(s): 2007-01-14 to 2007-01-19
Destination(s): Winnipeg, Manitoba
Commercial Flight: $2,506.89
Chartered Flight: $0.00
* Government Aircraft: $0.00
Other Transportation: $307.87
Accommodation: $863.16
Meals and Incidentals: $416.01
Other: $0.00
TOTAL : $4,147.93
http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/exprpts/s ... -t5_e.html


Apparently the goverment spends more on a 6 day trip to Switzerland than it does for 6 days in Winnipeg.

[styky]

Okay I need someone to step in here who travels and see if what I'm reading is par for the course when it comes to air fares. I have not checked lately what a flight from Ottawa to South Africa is but for some reason I think $17,928.86 is more than just a little over the line of acceptability.

<a href=http://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/about/dthe-dfva/ex_detail_e.asp?id=565&type=T&year=2007&pers=11&quarter=2>Travel Expense</a>

For:
Ruth Dantzer, President and CEO

Purpose:
CAPAM Board of Directors Meeting, and key note speaker at CAPAM Seminar in Somerset West, South Africa and bilaterals with Australia and United Kingdom on joint programming.

Date(s):
4/12/2007 to 4/22/2007

Destination(s):
South Africa

Air Fare:
$17928.86

Other Transportation:
$0.00

Accommodation:
$1134.43

Meals and incidentals:
$568.03

Other Expense:
$753.46

Total:
$20384.78

[Angleland]

Toronto-Mumbai (India) Return- 2110.00;I can't see why Ottaw to South Africa would be 15,000 more unless it was a Champaign Special

[ElimGarak]

Toronto-Mumbai (India) Return- 2110.00;I can't see why Ottaw to South Africa would be 15,000 more unless it was a Champaign Special

It was probably whatever is above executive. He probably got to fly the plane

[styky]

Toronto-Mumbai (India) Return- 2110.00;I can't see why Ottaw to South Africa would be 15,000 more unless it was a Champaign Special

Not sure but this may be the seminar in question..... http://www.capam.org/events/capam_event ... index.html

Topics included: Assessing the Quality and Scope of the current interface relationship; Navigating the Continuum in terms of Research, Consultancy, Practising Public Administration and Governance; Navigating the Continuum in terms of Training and Education; Organisational Development and Practising Public Administration. The Seminar presented panels of eminent academics, practitioners and Ministers from South Africa and various Commonwealth nations, and encouraged active participant involvement.

Does that line up just not sound so exciting that it would make you want to bill the taxpayers by traveling around the world to hear it.

[Ipberg2]

I notice that John Williams is just a backbench Tory MP these days and hasn't published a Waste Report since 2003 according to his website.

[Less Ottawa]

What happened to John Williams and his Waste Report? A very good question.

I think the answer lies in the fact that the Conservatives are only interested in cleaning up waste when they are in opposition. Since becoming government, they have proven to be a complete joke, and have expanded federal spending by over 14% in a little over a year.

From the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation interim report card on the Harper Government:

Ottawa is involved in too many areas of provincial responsibilities and the result is jurisdictional overlap that does not permit taxpayers to hold politicians accountable for how tax dollars are spent on health care and education. Who should voters hold responsible when medical patients sit in waiting lines rather than receive immediate care -- the provincial or federal government?

The Conservative government has opted to administer Canada's spaghetti federalism rather than untangle it. The 2007 Budget announced Ottawa will spend an additional $39-billion over the next seven years -- some of this amount will go to areas of federal responsibility and some to provincial areas. The payments to the provinces will be made through an enriched equalization and per capita education transfers. Ottawa will keep taxes high and continue to interfere in provincial affairs with the federal spending power.

Grade: F

<a href="http://www.taxpayer.com/main/news.php?news_id=2607">CTF: Let's Talk Taxes</a>

Duplication, overlap, waste ...

... and John Williams has remained silent throughout it all.

[styky]

I'm linking this thread to the waste link


http://www.freedominion.ca/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=85772

[styky]

$7M misspent, health-care audit finds
Report cites questionable spending practices by native agency

Fri Aug 17 2007

By Jen Skerritt



A Winnipeg-based native agency misspent nearly $7 million in federal health-care funds on trips to the Caribbean and unjustified payments to the organization's CEO, a federal audit revealed Thursday.
Health Canada released the long-awaited details of its financial investigation of Anishinaabe Mino-Ayaawin -- a native agency launched in 1996 to oversee community nursing stations and provide dental benefits and pharmacare for 7,500 aboriginals living on and off reserve in the Interlake.

The audit revealed 11 per cent of the $56.9 million AMA spent between 1997 and 2005 was questionable.

Health Canada found AMA repeatedly failed to give federal money to the aboriginal communities it was earmarked for, and in one case, gave $150,000 to an outside firm without documenting what the money was used for.

The audit flagged several examples of questionable spending, including:

* A number of insufficiently supported payments that were made to chiefs and councils

Timeline of AMA scandal

1998
Health Canada first question's some of AMA's expenses.


2000
Virginia Fontaine scandal breaks when Health Canada uncovers millions of dollars of taxpayers' money spent on lavish trips, cars and jewelry. It broadens its investigation into native health branch.


2001
A financial review found AMA did not provide $1.7 million in health services it received money for.


2004
AMA CEO Daryl Cote resigns.


2005
Health Canada stops funding AMA, and launches a lawsuit against them.
The same year, AMA launches a lawsuit against Cote, alleging he was involved in kickback schemes without the board's approval.

* Numerous transactions that were recorded as "community expenses", and for which no receipts, invoices or other support were available;

* Travel claims that were deemed questionable because no receipts were available, or because the relationship of the travel to delivering health programs was unclear.

* Professional fees for third-party firms and "finder's fees" that were paid to the CEO of AMA. These fees were considered duplicate payments for services and placed the CEO in a conflict of interest situation.

* A number of questionable expenditures that involved cheques issued to one person who "then apparently disbursed cash to other persons."

Health Minister Tony Clement blamed the mismanagement of funds on the former Liberal government's lack of accountability, and said Health Canada is taking steps to ensure the government has more control over future funding agreements.

"I think when the Liberals were in power and this occurred, political oversight and accountability wasn't something they were terribly interested in," he said during a phone interview from Argentina.

Health Canada first flagged AMA for its spending habits, after a 1998 departmental audit determined some expenses should be investigated.

Two years later, the department launched a broader investigation into its native health branch, when an audit uncovered 70 Virginia Fontaine Addictions Foundation in Manitoba used taxpayer's money to take a Caribbean cruise. Paul Cochrane was head of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch at the time, and has since spent time in jail for accepting more than $200,000 in bribes in exchange for allowing millions of dollars to flow into the Virginia Fontaine centre.

Clement denied Health Canada is incapable of overseeing its funding, and said the Harper government has made internal changes and introduced strict accountability legislation to prevent any misuse of public money and conflict of interest.

He said standard funding agreements have been strengthened and are now clearly outlined with conditions and objectives.

"I can't guarantee this will never happen again in the history of Canada, but if it does happen we can catch it sooner and make sure the bad guys get punished," Clement said.

In 2001, a Health Canada review found AMA did not provide $1.7 million in health services it had received funds for.

AMA's executive director Daryl Cote left his post in 2004, before the federal audit was complete.

In February 2005, Health Canada stopped funding AMA after questions were raised about whether the organization was delivering services it received funding for.

Later that year the federal government launched a lawsuit against AMA in July claiming they mismanaged federal funds -- including spending $850,000 of federal money to purchase a building on Smith Street and $26,000 to send AMA board members on a retreat to the Dominican Republic.

Clement said the government has since recovered $1.7 million, but is still trying to reap the remaining $4.7 million.

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ ... 5787c.html

[styky]

What the heck is CIDA giving these kinds of funds to the Canadian Nurses Association.

<a href=http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cidaweb/grantscontrib.nsf/0/52EE1F14FF6EDA6F852572EC006A9677?opendocument&lang=en>Disclosure of Grant and Contribution Awards Over $25,000</a>

Recipient Name: Canadian Nurses Association
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Date: 2007-03-28
Value: $5,000,000.00
Type: Contribution
Purpose: Canadian Nurses Association - Program 2007-2012
Comments: 1. Multi-year award for fiscal years 2006-07 to 2012-13

[styky]

Is this Rabble getting govenment funding through the back door???????

<a href=http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cidaweb/cpo.nsf/vLUWebProjEn/9D0F9088D95C0963852571FE00692CA2?OpenDocument>source</a>
Title: Radio: The Green Planet Monitor: Audio/Radio Series
Project Number: A033270-001
Maximum CIDA Contribution: $38,000
Executing Agency - Partner - Recipient: EARTH CHRONICLE PRODUCTIONS
Status: Operational
Start - End: 2006 - 2007
Country:
Canada: 100%

Sector:
Promotion of development awareness: 100%

Description:
This series, produced by Earth Chronicle Productions, consists of 16 weekly audio magazine programs to be podcast on Rabble Podcast Network. It will show how communities in several developing countries are achieving sustainable economic and social development using local imagination and knowledge. Each of the 16 audio programs will be 15 minutes in length, and will feature a total of 32 development stories, covering a wide range of topics, including: agriculture, efficient energy and waste management; sustainable and socially equitable urban design, closed-loop manufacturing, low tech health care; and HIV/AIDS. Countries to be featured include Rwanda, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras.
Related Link(s):
This project is funded through the <a href=http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/CIDAWEB/acdicida.nsf/En/JUD-12183041-HUQ?OpenDocument>Mass Media Initiative (MMI). </a>