- Reaction score
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Feds spent over $620,000 in booze in last four years
http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/2011/02/09/17216601.html
OTTAWA — Taxpayers footed the bill for more than $620,000 in booze over the past four years, newly released federal documents show.
But 27 departments and agencies — including the RCMP and the Treasury Board Secretariat, the central agency that sets the rules for expensing liquor in the public service — could not account for any of their spending on alcoholic drinks since 2006.
Of those that did, the Department of National Defence spent the most money, a whopping $495,532, on alcohol.
Three departments, including the Prime Minister’s bureaucracy, the Privy Council Office, provided incomplete data.
Canada’s spy service, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, refused to say what it spent on alcohol, citing national security.
Of the 33 bureaucracies who provided at least partial answers, government figures show they spent $625,252.22 on liquor since 2006-2007.
Nearly half of the money, $271,945, was personally approved by various ministers of national defence.
The Canada School of Public Service, the place bureaucrats go to learn how to become better managers, spent the second-most money on liquor, $22,822.
The Canada Revenue Agency rounded out the top three, spending $16,275.15 on booze.
Twenty-one offices, mostly small government agencies with a handful of staff, reported spending no money on liquor.
Liberal MP Siobhan Coady told QMI Agency the Harper government portrays itself as a sound fiscal manager, but facts suggest otherwise.
“Since coming into power they have spent $600,000 purchasing alcohol -- that’s what we know about,” she said.
“There are very few controls over these types of expenditures in government. If they are not looking after the small stuff, what are they doing on the big stuff?”
Coady was troubled that in many cases — at DND, Public Works, the Economic Development Agency of Quebec, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Communications Security Establishment Canada and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency — liquor was expensed without proper oversight.
Documents suggest mid-level bureaucrats inappropriately signed off on the purchase of beer and wine for hospitality events.
“The former policy was not explicit about alcohol,” Treasury Board spokesman Robert Makichuk said, explaining why the hospitality policy was subject to different interpretations.
Still, Makuchuk said, alcohol was generally understood to require the prior approval of the minister or deputy head.
Staff in the minister of national defence’s office approved $2,223 on booze although the rules, written and unwritten, suggest no one had that authority.
In fact, $104,736 in liquor spending at the defence department was spent without the approval of the minister or someone at the deputy minister level.
DND spokesman Jason Broadbent was unable to explain Wednesday why the department had spent so much or who had approved it.
Treasury Board President Stockwell Day announced last fall that the feds would introduce new directives on hospitality restricting alcohol spending to situations in which it was strictly necessary for protocol or courtesy reasons. They came into place this January.
althia.raj@sunmedia.ca
http://www.ottawasun.com/news/canada/2011/02/09/17216601.html
OTTAWA — Taxpayers footed the bill for more than $620,000 in booze over the past four years, newly released federal documents show.
But 27 departments and agencies — including the RCMP and the Treasury Board Secretariat, the central agency that sets the rules for expensing liquor in the public service — could not account for any of their spending on alcoholic drinks since 2006.
Of those that did, the Department of National Defence spent the most money, a whopping $495,532, on alcohol.
Three departments, including the Prime Minister’s bureaucracy, the Privy Council Office, provided incomplete data.
Canada’s spy service, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, refused to say what it spent on alcohol, citing national security.
Of the 33 bureaucracies who provided at least partial answers, government figures show they spent $625,252.22 on liquor since 2006-2007.
Nearly half of the money, $271,945, was personally approved by various ministers of national defence.
The Canada School of Public Service, the place bureaucrats go to learn how to become better managers, spent the second-most money on liquor, $22,822.
The Canada Revenue Agency rounded out the top three, spending $16,275.15 on booze.
Twenty-one offices, mostly small government agencies with a handful of staff, reported spending no money on liquor.
Liberal MP Siobhan Coady told QMI Agency the Harper government portrays itself as a sound fiscal manager, but facts suggest otherwise.
“Since coming into power they have spent $600,000 purchasing alcohol -- that’s what we know about,” she said.
“There are very few controls over these types of expenditures in government. If they are not looking after the small stuff, what are they doing on the big stuff?”
Coady was troubled that in many cases — at DND, Public Works, the Economic Development Agency of Quebec, the Canadian International Development Agency, the Communications Security Establishment Canada and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency — liquor was expensed without proper oversight.
Documents suggest mid-level bureaucrats inappropriately signed off on the purchase of beer and wine for hospitality events.
“The former policy was not explicit about alcohol,” Treasury Board spokesman Robert Makichuk said, explaining why the hospitality policy was subject to different interpretations.
Still, Makuchuk said, alcohol was generally understood to require the prior approval of the minister or deputy head.
Staff in the minister of national defence’s office approved $2,223 on booze although the rules, written and unwritten, suggest no one had that authority.
In fact, $104,736 in liquor spending at the defence department was spent without the approval of the minister or someone at the deputy minister level.
DND spokesman Jason Broadbent was unable to explain Wednesday why the department had spent so much or who had approved it.
Treasury Board President Stockwell Day announced last fall that the feds would introduce new directives on hospitality restricting alcohol spending to situations in which it was strictly necessary for protocol or courtesy reasons. They came into place this January.
althia.raj@sunmedia.ca
) without even asking for it.
