Canadians Expect Security: Government Inadequately Funds It
*** "Pension funds were used to maintain RCMP and Public Service workload, address work back-logs and deliver on a wide variety of initiatives," ***
How are the RCMP supposed to be effective against terrorists and crooks when they've been so starved of operating funds that, I suspect, they have had to dig into this to keep afloat? The government's line that they've kicked $7.7 billion into security but this is an illusion when this has to go on. What the government has done to the RCMP is a national disgrace and has left Canadians unprotected! If they had been properly funded, they wouldn't have had to resort to this.
The government claiming that all is well with security is nothing more than financial sleight of hand. Just listen to question period if you don't believe this. It is impossible to find out anything from the government side. Obfuscation! Obfuscation! Obfuscation!
It seems that the only thing that has been important to the government has been the Musical Ride -- nice and showy, the kind of thing that looks great in photographs; protection of Canadians has been a remote priority -- and still is, by the looks of the Paul Martin budget.
*** Our Liberal government, however, did find money for the gun registry and sponsorships so it wasn't as if Canada's federal government couldn't find any funds to prevent Canada's national police force from sinking into the abyss. ***
At the same time, our security services have to contend with terrorists and a $30 billion criminal enterprise being operated in this country; the RCMP have nowhere near the resources to cope with the problems.
*** It looks as if there were a reason the Liberal government does not have adequate whistleblower legislation that would protect Mounties such as Cpl. Read or Sgt. Stenhouse--or other whistleblowers. How very convenient! Now, who would benefit from that? ***
OTTAWA - The RCMP is facing accusations that it may have misused its own employees' pension fund of millions of dollars by billing the fund for administrative and other expenses unrelated to pensions, the National Post has learned.
"Pension funds were used to maintain RCMP and Public Service workload, address work back-logs and deliver on a wide variety of initiatives," concludes a secret internal RCMP report on pension administration problems that was delivered last November to Giuliano Zaccardelli, the RCMP Commissioner.
[. . . .] When internal auditors asked why the RCMP pension fund was being billed by RCMP financial managers for costs unrelated to pension fund administration, the RCMP staffers involved replied they had received "informal instructions" -- they didn't say from whom -- to " 'be creative' in spending funds provided."
[. . . .] RCMP Inspector Tim Cogan confirmed last night that an audit of the RCMP's pension fund administration is ongoing.
"The audit is not complete at this time. It has raised a number of concerns and we are following up on those concerns," Insp. Cogan said.
[. . . .] So far, the RCMP has quietly ordered a "review" to determine if a full financial audit is required to quantify how much "may have been inappropriately charged to the pension plan and that should be recovered," the audit report states.
The RCMP Pension Fund had assets totalling $13.4-billion at March 31, 2003, the latest period for which financial information is available. It reported $13.4 million in administrative expenses during the period, up more than 40% from the $9.3 million in such expenses reported for 2001-2002, documents show.
The RCMP pension plan is overseen by a unit inside the RCMP's National Compensation Policy Centre. On April 1, 2003, some of the administrative functions associated with the RCMP pension plan were privatized and are now carried out by Morneau Sobeco, a firm based in Montreal.
[. . . . ] Auditors uncovered a host of RCMP management expenses improperly billed to the pension fund, the largest of which was the entire bill for a $3.6-million project to clean up computerized RCMP personnel data before the RCMP outsourced some pension administration functions to Morneau Sobeco.
The RCMP personnel data that was "cleaned up" in the complex computer project supports RCMP staffing, payroll, benefits and other RCMP corporate and financial activities, yet the force paid for none of it, auditors found. Pensioners footed the entire bill.
"Pension plan members may view as inappropriate the charging of 100% of costs associated with data cleanup given that the accuracy of original data entry is the responsibility of the organization and not solely of the pension plan," the audit states.
[. . . . ] "In fact, there appears to have been a general tendency to fund unrelated costs through the pension plan," the audit report concludes.
There are details, if you link.
This reminded me of something I wrote on March 11, 04. There was a problem with $$$ and computer hardware, software and related services that the Auditor General and her department pointed out: See this entry.
Link to it or read the short excerpt here. Then think.
Note: Compaq/HP acted, at the Liberal government's behest, as an umbrella organization for the government to oversee six subcontractors
*** The contract to provide software, hardware and computer services to DND was originally awarded to Compaq Canada in 1991. It was transferred to HP after its acquisition of Compaq.
HP said it was kept out of the loop as it hired subcontractors at the request of DND.
"DND's instructions to HP were to process invoices for these suppliers, although the nature of the work being performed was, in many instances, never disclosed by DND. Despite repeated HP requests for particulars of the work to be provided, DND informed HP that the work was confidential and that, in the interest of national security, HP was not entitled to this information," Mr. Ireland said. ***
When the public is kept in the dark, when the public becomes enraged at what has happened to law and order in Canada, when the public feels inadequately protected, when the public is lied to by its government, the public has a short fuse. It may turn on agencies of which it knows too little -- especially -- instead of upon the government which causes the problem.
It seems to me--a layman in these things, admittedly--that if the kind of thing that is referred to in the story I have mentioned above applied to computers/computing services in DND, similar problems could arise with other departments. Canada's security services are tasked with providing services Canadians expect and assume our government funds adequately. There have been deficits in the funding for the RCMP and other security services.
Despite protestations to the contrary, there has been great secrecy about how taxpayers' money is used in any federal government department or crown corporation, particularly the "crowns" because of the "arms length" relationship with the "crowns". Those who understand more about the fine points of these relationships might be able to explain this better. Still, I would ask, is it not possible? Could our government have beggared our security services, as well as our military, leaving all to "be creative" in order to carry on? It is worth a second thought. NJC
