Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

AG's report just another headache

Back in my days with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (1997-2003), reports from the auditor general -- like the one delivered Tuesday and detailed in this paper -- served to reinforce that we were not alone in fighting the good fight against waste, abuse and mismanagement in government.

Now the AG's tone is more diplomatic than the analyses that me and my CTF colleagues used to (and my successors still do) pump out, but the intent was the same: To get better value for our precious tax dollars and ensure that programs and services effectively and efficiently serve Canadians that need them.

Sadly, the political response from governments of all stripes and at all levels has been to adopt subtle variations on the following message track: "Yes we acknowledge and welcome the important work of the auditor general. Indeed, the AG noted some progress on file X, issue Y and program Z and I would also point out that these audit findings are in some cases several years old and not reflective of the current state of affairs in Department A, Agency B, or Commission C." Then the appropriate official pops a few Advil, weathers a few media questions and stories and life goes on.

Hopefully Tuesday's AG report will encourage parliamentarians (and the media) to once again focus on the important and systemic issues of government that affect people's everyday lives like EI cheques, CPP payments, tax collections and the like.

This would be a welcome change from pack mentality (except the NDP to be fair) who have chased the Guergis-Jaffer quasi-scandal just as the paparazzi look to track down compromising photos of Hollywood stars. As noted last week, the body politic writ large has been diminished by this fixation on sensational political drivel over substantive policy discussion.

In her latest report, AG Sheila Fraser's office found that several government IT systems are decades old and these so-called legacy systems, identified in departmental risk profiles, must be renewed or replaced. For example, the costs to ensure tax collection and benefit payment -- EI, CPP, OAS -- computer systems are modernized tally $2 billion alone. And the AG was clear that the chief information officer branch of Treasury Board must assert its leadership role in this area across government. This issue has festered for the better part of a decade; it cries out for leadership and action.

Ditto for the rehabilitation of our parliamentary precinct. While not crumbling, yet, electrical and heating/cooling systems in West Block and Centre Block require substantive improvements. And similar to the multiple agencies responsible for security on the Hill, the AG is definitive in noting that public works, as the main contractor, cannot always get the Senate and House on the same page to get things done, "making decisions takes time and ultimately results in project delays and inefficient use of resources." Enough said.

Finally, the AG, along with her provincial peers, identified critical challenges with the management and delivery of electronic health records such as too few doctors using computerized systems, a lack of compatibility between provincial systems, conflicting data collection, protection and disclosure protocols and oh yeah, the small issue of what it will actually cost to complete this national system.

Guess who needs a few Advil now?