Art Montague shares his thoughts: If anyone thinks the RCMP are Canada's "top cops," they're wrong.
An under-staffed squad of bean counters known as Canada's Auditor General's Office can send the horsemen hiding in their stables or, more likely, running for their paper shredders, with as little as a phone call.
The Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, is responsible for verifying just what the federal government spends its money on, the notion being -- though apparently alien to politicians and bureaucrats alike -- that taxpayers should be seen to be getting the best bang for their tax bucks, and more than seen, actually getting it.
Recently the Auditor-General turned its attention to the office of the Correctional Investigator for Corrections Canada, keepers of cons serving two year or longer prison sentences.
Now, the current Correctional Investigator, Howard Sapers, has somewhat gone off the rails of late, but otherwise seems to be bumping along within budget and with a reasonable (for government) measure of fiscal responsibility and due diligence. However, the Auditor General recently took a hard look at the spoor on his predecessor's paper trail, a trail 14 years long, and came up with some astounding information.
The Investigator under the accounting miscroscope, is Ron Stewart, a lawyer, former star Canadian football halfback with the Ottawa Rough Riders and Canadian Football League Hall-of-Famer; an icon in Ottawa where icons are scarce or quickly decamp for parts elsewhere -- Paul Anka, Rich Little, Alanis Morissette, among those who have. (We can't count Tom Green -- he keeps coming back to lick his wounds and what-not).
Among "corrections' Stewart was found to have investigated and expensed were his high school reunion, a Canadian Sports Hall of Fame dinner, and five trips to cities co-incident with their hosting of Canadian football's Grey Cup.
As a halfback, Stewart could feint, dip, slip, jump and run better than most -- maybe his law background helped. Rarely did he fumble, but then, he'd never faced the Auditor General, the wiliest defensive back in the country.
In any case, Stewart definitely learned to multi-task. He could conduct enough business in a one-minute cell phone call from his secluded cottage to justify charging for a full day's work. In fact, he was able to do most of his work from his cottage, though there's no record of just what he did. The Auditor General found 319 instances like this one. Yet the workload must have been very trying. During the last six years, he was absent for 300 days. Perhaps he was just using up accumulated vacation and sick leave days.
The final tab, give or take a few thousand -- $325,000 in questionable payments to him. In an ironic twist, the Auditor General has referred the matter to the RCMP for further investigation. Still, it is highly unlikely that Stewart will ever do correctional investigation from a cell rather than from a lakeside cottage.
link: CBC.ca
