PACP Committee News Release
If you have any questions or comments regarding the accessibility of this publication, please contact us at accessible@parl.gc.ca.
|
Standing Committee on Public Accounts |
HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES OTTAWA, CANADA K1A 0A6 |
Comité permanent des comptes publics |
For immediate release
NEWS RELEASE
Accounting "errors" undermined Parliament's Control of Spending on the Canadian Firearms Program
Ottawa, October 30, 2006 -
Mr. Shawn Murphy, MP, and Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts, tabled the Committee’s 9th Report on the Auditor General’s May 2006 special report entitled Government Decisions Limited Parliament’s Control of the Public Purse. In this report, the Auditor General outlined two accounting errors that undermined the ability of Parliament to set a cap on spending of the Firearms Program.
The Public Accounts Committee is greatly concerned by the selective use of accounting rules to obscure the costs of the Firearms Program. Senior government officials did not follow proper accounting principles and the government’s own policy. This distorted the costs incurred by a highly controversial and politically sensitive program. Parliament must be able to control the public purse if it is to hold the government to account, which is not possible without full and complete information. The Committee strongly believes that actions must be taken to ensure this type of situation never happens again.
The Committee recommends, among other things, that the Government agree with the Auditor General’s opinion on the proper recording of the Program’s costs and senior officials be held accountable for recording key decisions.
- 30 -
|