The Waste Watch - Government waste federal and provincial

[styky]

Harper approved $22K hospitality tab for bureaucrats
Updated: Sun Feb. 26 2012 06:51:25

The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally approved a $21,865 hospitality tab for visiting European bureaucrats last fall even as the government was preaching fiscal restraint.

Newly disclosed documents show the three-day meeting featured a welcome reception at the National Gallery of Canada, two lunches, and a formal dinner at Rideau Hall -- all of them featuring free wine.

The final tab for the Oct. 18-20 event was almost $112,000, including travel, hotels, musical entertainment and $2,250 in gifts for delegates.

Visitors included a six-person delegation from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development secretariat in Paris, who joined Harper and Canadian public servants to discuss how to manage major government cuts in spending.

The so-called OECD Centres of Government meeting has rotated among various member countries since 1993, and for the first time it was Canada's turn. Wayne Wouters, clerk of the Privy Council and Canada's highest-ranking public servant, was host.

Of the 45 people in attendance, 10 were from the Canadian government, the remainder from the 33 other OECD countries or the secretariat. Harper himself participated in a roundtable discussion.

Partly because budgeted hospitality costs exceeded the $5,000 threshold imposed by government rules, Harper had to personally pre-approve the expected bill as head of the Privy Council Office. The prime minister's signature was also necessary to OK the free alcohol.

"Every effort is being made to contain costs associated with this event," Wouters wrote to Harper on Sept. 11, asking for his approval.

"As host, Canada is expected to provide a certain level of hospitality, including a reception to welcome delegates on the evening of their arrival and an official dinner."

He added: "For reasons of courtesy and protocol, alcoholic beverages will be offered at the welcome reception, the official dinner, and the two lunches."

Wouters also noted that the budget for the reception "exceeds the maximum cost per person" as set by Treasury Board policy, yet another reason Harper had to sign off on the event.

The posh reception at the National Gallery of Canada cost $160 per person, more than three times the approved Treasury Board maximum of $46.

Documents related to the event were obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

In the end, the final hospitality tab was trimmed to $16,000, said Raymond Rivet, spokesman for the Privy Council Office. He said the bill for the entire event was far lower than the initial budget of $300,000.

The OECD hospitality tab is among the highest for any minister since the Tories first came to power in 2006.

Peter MacKay approved a $16,800 tab for Passport Canada staff in 2007, when he was foreign minister. And Harper approved one for Privy Council Office staff in 2010 for $7,400. Neither included alcohol.

Such tabs are not proactively posted as normally required on government websites because they are departmental, rather than personal, which makes comparisons difficult. The big Harper and MacKay tabs were only revealed through Access to Information Act requests.

The OECD event was held after the Harper government ordered dozens of federal departments and agencies to submit detailed plans by Oct. 3 to cut as much as 10 per cent of their budgets, for savings of up to $8 billion annually.

The meeting of OECD delegates included discussions about how member governments should implement deficit-fighting cuts.

"Participants agreed that restructuring, a difficult and challenging process, should be rapid, comprehensive and evidence-based, rather than piecemeal," say minutes of the meeting.

"The watchword for restructuring should be 'transparency.' ... Visible signs of government openness and integrity are important to garner support for difficult choices."

The Tories' current program review, led by Tony Clement, the Treasury Board president, has been widely criticized for being conducted behind closed doors in an information vacuum.

The planned cuts are expected to be revealed in the coming federal budget, though a recent Treasury Board memo called on bureaucrats to leave details out of key departmental reports this spring.

The Harper government is paying consultant Deloitte Inc. almost $90,000 a day for advice on how to manage the cuts.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/ ... algaryHome

[styky]

Bidder buttered up bureaucrats?
By TONY SPEARS, QMI Agency

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2012 ... 64806.html

Royal LePage lavished free horseback rides, denim shirts, harbour tours and golf tournaments on public servants who evaluated competing bids. (Shutterstock)

OTTAWA -- The winner of more than a $1 billion in federal contracts lavished free horseback rides, denim shirts, harbour tours and golf tournaments on public servants who evaluated competing bids.

Royal LePage won the lucrative relocation contracts in 2002 -- and again in 2004 after the bids were retendered due to conflict of interest allegations.

Internal investigation reports, unsealed as a result of a successful QMI Agency court challenge, also detailed bid team members' attendance at gala dinners -- "drinks, dinner, music and a small gift" -- and Christmas luncheons, which began after Royal LePage landed the relocation pilot project in 1999.

Court proceedings in a $62-million civil suit filed against the federal government by losing bidder Envoy Relocation Services resumed Monday, with testimony from investigation manager Michel Genest, who probed conflict of interest claims in the 2002 bid.

"It is my belief, based on my 26 years as a police officer in the RCMP investigating cases of corruption and more recently my last two years in the Audit and Ethics Branch of (Public Works), that these individuals have placed themselves in a position of a perceived conflict of interest," Genest wrote in a draft report dated Aug. 19, 2003.

"It appears that evaluation committee members may have put themselves in a vulnerable position when they accepted the gifts, hospitality and other benefits from Royal LePage."


Those sentences didn't appear in Genest's final Sept. 24, 2003 report.

Genest explained he had been using the strict RCMP standards for accepting hospitality, whereas existing guidelines allowed public servants to receive gifts valued at less than $50.

"I was obviously using the wrong standard," Genest said.

The free golf tournaments -- attendance in at least one case was authorized by a bid team member's superior -- were the only violations Genest found.

Genest's bosses read drafts of the report and suggested changes.

One handwritten annotation softened Genest's opinion of an employee's Caribbean cruise with Royal LePage vice-president Ray Belair.

"It may have given an appearance of a conflict of interest" became "I conclude that she provided an opportunity for an observer to judge that there was the appearance of a conflict of interest."

The court heard the employee paid for the cruise herself.

"I certainly did not disagree with what was in that paragraph," Genest told the court.

[styky]

Everything must go: Canada takes huge writedown on surplus gear in Afghanistan


By Lee Berthiaume, Postmedia News March 8, 2012
OTTAWA — Private companies managed to wring major deals out of the Canadian military in the months leading up to the end of the combat mission in Afghanistan, purchasing nearly $2 million worth of equipment in Kandahar for less than $100,000, internal defence department documents show.

Another $3.8 million worth of baseball gloves, computers, armoured SUVs and other supplies that couldn't be sold ended up being donated or destroyed.

The documents are part of a briefing package prepared for Defence Minister Peter MacKay and cover the period from June 1, 2011 to Oct. 15, 2011. The totals do not include items that were sold, donated or destroyed from Oct. 16 to Dec. 12, when the last Canadian troops left Kandahar airfield.

Prior to closing the Canadian camp, about 1,200 soldiers were tasked with determining what vehicles, electronics and other equipment should be returned to Canada, what was too expensive to transport back and should be sold or given away, and what items were to be destroyed.

The documents provide a dollar value and a disposal cost for each item and, if it was sold, how much money was raised from each individual sale.

Nearly $2.7 million worth of equipment ended up being donated, most of it to the Afghan National Army and a U.S. military unit that provides humanitarian assistance to communities and Afghans in Kandahar province.

Among the items the ANA received were $443,000 worth of tents and power generators, two armoured SUVs valued at $184,853 each, a $1,208 bench press, a $700 salad bar, and an $85 barbecue.

The U.S. unit was given water tanks worth several thousand dollars each, a batch of sea containers worth $24,101, more than $1 million in canvas, 40 baseball gloves valued at $1,120, and 1,901 bags of charcoal briquettes that cost $7.49 each, for a total of $14,238.

While the ANA and U.S. military benefitted by receiving large donations of Canadian equipment for free, dozens of contractors and private companies were snapping up bargain-basement deals.

Among the buyers was Maryland-based demining company Ronco Consulting, which got a $21,000 sound system for $105 and more than $114,000 worth of electronics for $567, among other things.

A Danish vehicle modification company, IM Jensen, purchased $50,000 worth of computers for $250, $10,000 worth of medical equipment for $298, and $7,000 in work masks for $20.

Some other deals included $19,866 in treadmills that were sold for $1,092, more than $12,500 worth of safety matches sold for $792, and $33,000 worth of camping equipment given to vehicle manufacturer and service provider Caterpillar for $26.

More than $1.1 million worth of equipment which couldn't be sold or donated — much of it computers and associated components — was destroyed, the documents say.

Brig.-Gen. Chuck Lamarre, who oversaw the closure of the mission in Kandahar, told a Senate committee on Feb. 13 that many factors contributed to whether an item was sold, donated or destroyed rather than brought back to Canada.

"Is it worth bringing it back?" he said. "Do we need it? Can we buy it back in Canada?

"Sometimes it got more sophisticated, where we had vehicles that we had been using, such as SUVs, which we were not going to bring back to Canada due to how much wear and tear we had already put on them."

He said another consideration was the need to prepare the Afghan army to take over responsibility for the country's security in 2014.

Liberal defence critic John McKay said he understood the difficulties and high cost of transporting equipment out of Afghanistan, and the cost-benefit analysis that would have been undertaken.

"But somebody got one heck of a great deal," he said, referring to the private companies that purchased Canadian equipment. "You have to wonder about the efforts they put in to selling it. If this was your stuff and my stuff, would you be so enthusiastic about walking away from it?"

NDP defence critic David Christopherson said the government must explain the process for selling the equipment to ensure there wasn't any wrongdoing.

"Was there a sweetheart deal or not?" he asked. "What was the process? It certainly does raise questions."
http://www.canada.com/news/Everything+m ... story.html

[styky]

Opposition calls Oda's hotel expenses 'offensive'
http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/C ... OttawaHome

<snip>

Oda was supposed to stay at the Grange St. Paul's Hotel where she was attending a conference on immunization last year.

But she had her staff rebook her into the posh Savoy that overlooks the Thames, a hotel favoured by royalty and currently owned by Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia.

The bill for the Savoy cost taxpayers $1,995 ($665 per night), but she still had to pay $287 for the cancelled room at the first hotel.

Oda also ordered a luxury car and driver in London that shuttled her the two kilometres between the conference and the Savoy that cost nearly $1,000 per day.

An orange juice Oda expensed from the Savoy also cost $16.

Documents on the trip were obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

[styky]

Opposition calls Oda's hotel expenses 'offensive'
http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/C ... OttawaHome

<snip>

Oda was supposed to stay at the Grange St. Paul's Hotel where she was attending a conference on immunization last year.

But she had her staff rebook her into the posh Savoy that overlooks the Thames, a hotel favoured by royalty and currently owned by Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia.

The bill for the Savoy cost taxpayers $1,995 ($665 per night), but she still had to pay $287 for the cancelled room at the first hotel.

Oda also ordered a luxury car and driver in London that shuttled her the two kilometres between the conference and the Savoy that cost nearly $1,000 per day.

An orange juice Oda expensed from the Savoy also cost $16.

Documents on the trip were obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

Bev Oda repays taxpayers after opting for swanky hotel favoured by royalty
International Development Minister Bev Oda repaid taxpayers Monday for the cost of rejecting one five-star hotel in London, England and rebooking at a swankier establishment at more than double the rate. Ms. Oda's office revealed the reimbursement ...http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... nt=2410745

[styky]

Feds order CFIA to review bureaucrat's expenses
Amy Minsky, Global News/The West Block : Thursday, May 24, 2012 8:57 PM

Read it on Global News: Global News | Feds order CFIA to review one bureaucrat's expenses
OTTAWA — The government is ordering the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to review one bureaucrat's expenses after it was revealed he billed taxpayers more than $100,000 in flights and hotels while on assignment to help find budget cuts.

"I've asked the CFIA to go back through and identify all costs that were incurred," said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, the minister under whose jurisdiction the food inspection agency falls. "He was tasked with quarterbacking the 14 people under his charge to find these efficiencies. They helped us find some $56 million … so the end result is good ... But it sort of is destroyed, credibility is destroyed, when he spends $100,000 finding it."

Read it on Global News: Global News | Feds order CFIA to review one bureaucrat's expenses....................http://www.globalnews.ca/under%2Breview ... story.html

[styky]

DND BLEW $50,000 ON ANTI-STRESS BALLS

La Défense a dépensé 50 000$ pour des balles antistress
http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebe ... stress.php

[styky]

Coming clean on expenses no easy task

By Greg Van Moorsel, The London Free Press

Monday, September 17, 2012 6:31:25 EDT PM
In Ottawa, it was former minister Bev Oda’s $16 glass of orange juice at a British hotel that killed her in the court of public opinion. She might as well have ordered hemlock.

At Queen’s Park, the expenses outrage that burned a few years ago was the Ontario government’s high-priced eHealth consultants, who nickeled and dimed taxpayers for muffins and tea. Some of the hired hands were being paid handsomely for questionable, untendered work like reading newspapers, talking on the subway and watching TV.

In Alberta, another health bureaucrat — now gone — racked up an eye-popping $346,000 in expenses over several years in a previous job. Lavish meals were only part of it. There also were car washes, in a land where dirt from prairie dust storms is a vehicle colour.

All three cases, and others of their ilk, stick in the craw of taxpayers for what are often small reasons, overshadowing larger issues. Maybe it’s because many of us can’t keep track of all the zeroes in the blizzards of government spending. More likely, it’s because we’d never be so brazen as to abuse expense accounts for either the cheapskate charges that grab headlines or the breathtaking sums that naturally also get ink.

In Ottawa, it was Oda’s sorry performance as a minister — not the OJ or hotel smoking fee she tried to expense — that ultimately would have driven her out. Remember the dust-up on her watch about a document altered to deny funding to a church-backed aid group?

In Ontario, a few cupcakes and pots of tea were never the crux of the eHealth scandal: It was the shocking waste by successive governments of $1 billion in taxpayers’ money to develop an electronic patient health records system, with nothing to show for it.

Now, in a trail-blazing correction that relies on public shaming, Alberta will require online posting of all expenses and receipts of government legislators and senior civil servants.

But there’s another overlooked cost to the abuse of public expense accounts — the pall it casts over all public servants, including politicians. Most not only follow the rules, but often also subsidize their work out of their own pockets. You can’t put in 12-hour days in the public eye, as many politicians do, or cover off vast ridings — some in Ontario are the size of small countries — without being hit up for things not covered by expense accounts. Better yet, look at your MP or MPP’s expense accounts.

At Queen’s Park, the MPPs who represent Ontario’s 107 ridings together billed taxpayers $32.78 million in expenses last year. That’s what it cost to rent, staff and operate their riding offices, and for work travel and Toronto living expenses. Factoring in an election year, with politicians coming and going, that’s an average of $306,357 each.

Twenty years earlier, in 1991, in a larger legislature with 130 seats, the total expenses for MPPs set taxpayers back $30.1 million — an average $232,079 each. But run that total through an inflation calculator, indexing it to compounded price hikes, and the average MPP’s expenses today should check in about $100,000 higher than they are now.

Some of that difference can be chalked up to office efficiencies brought about by things like the Internet, which has all but wiped out long-distance phone charges, and the need for fewer offices with fewer MPPs.

Two lessons to draw from all this?

First, it’s a sad day for all public servants when the transparency bar on expenses — watch the Alberta online disclosure example spread — is set for bad apples.

Second, hotel orange juice is never a smart buy — not from the mini-bar or room service. Even accidental tourists know that. Globe-trotting politicians have no excuse.
http://www.lfpress.com/2012/09/17/van-m ... -easy-task

[styky]

B.C. Housing staff used agency credit cards to buy lavish meals, booze: audit

People responsible for sheltering poor splashed taxpayers’ cash

By Mark Hasiuk, For The Province October 25, 2012 9:22 AM

According to a shocking and secret audit of company credit cards, B.C. Housing workers blew taxpayer dollars on flowers, booze and celebratory restaurant meals.

Moreover, the amount spent by B.C. Housing credit-card holders jumped almost 50 per cent between 2009 and 2011 while some users violated basic credit-card rules.

The organization is tasked with providing housing for the province’s most vulnerable populations.

The 30-page audit report, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, was conducted by B.C. Housing internal auditors and targets so-called purchasing cards — also known as p-cards — that B.C. Housing employees use for travel, meals and entertainment.

Read the audit here

A B.C. Housing spokesman said there are presently 362 p-cards in circulation.

In 2009, card-holders racked up more than $1.7 million in p-card expenses.

In 2011, that number ballooned to $2.5 million, an increase of almost 50 per cent.

According to the audit report, p-cards were used for flowers “to recognize significant events in employees’ lives.”

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/Housing+staf ... z2ALH1d6gl