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The federal government needs to do better at tracking and evaluating some of its program spending to ensure taxpayer dollars are being well-spent, Auditor General Michael Ferguson found in his spring report released today, and one of the most striking examples is that it can't account for $3.1 billion in anti-terrorism funding.
He found that departments reported spending $9.8 billion of the $12.9 billion allocated for security and anti-terrorism measures under the program but he couldn't determine where the other $3.1 billion went. The Treasury Board had no clear answers for him.
Tony Clement says although auditor general can’t find $3.1B allocated to anti-terrorism, no one saying money ‘misspent’
Furthermore, he found the government did not have a clear handle on whether it had met the strategy’s objectives of keeping terrorists out of Canada, and deterring attacks.
Originally posted by erwalker
reply to post by bobs_uruncle
I think someone would notice if $300 Billion when missing from the Canadian military coffers, given that the DND budget is approx. $20 Billion.
Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
Originally posted by erwalker
reply to post by bobs_uruncle
I think someone would notice if $300 Billion when missing from the Canadian military coffers, given that the DND budget is approx. $20 Billion.
Wouldn't surprise me in the least considering the incompetence and rampant corruption in government. And any way, I've seen $150 million in tax and public funds frauds first hand, covered up by the government, universities and revenue canada ;-)
Cheers - Dave
Originally posted by erwalker
Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
Originally posted by erwalker
reply to post by bobs_uruncle
I think someone would notice if $300 Billion when missing from the Canadian military coffers, given that the DND budget is approx. $20 Billion.
Wouldn't surprise me in the least considering the incompetence and rampant corruption in government. And any way, I've seen $150 million in tax and public funds frauds first hand, covered up by the government, universities and revenue canada ;-)
Cheers - Dave
There's a huge difference between $150 million and $300 billion. $300 billion is almost $50 billion more than all tax revenues for one year. It is 15 years worth of of the Canadian military budget. So yes, I think it would be noticed.
$150 million is to government spending ($276 billion in 2012) as $40 is to someone making $75,000/year.
That does not mean I think we should turn a blind eye to fraud. We should punish the perpetrators. But the government can misspend $150 million through simple incompetence or undue care vice fraud.
Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
According to the US government's budget reports, the military budget for 2001 was $664.84 billion. The day before 911, that Sept 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld did a news conference at the Pentagon where he announced that $2.1 trillion dollars was "missing." I remember as I watched that news report at the time. So, hmmmm, more than 3 times the US military budget goes missing from the military/pentagon? Go figure?
Originally posted by erwalker
Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
According to the US government's budget reports, the military budget for 2001 was $664.84 billion. The day before 911, that Sept 10, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld did a news conference at the Pentagon where he announced that $2.1 trillion dollars was "missing." I remember as I watched that news report at the time. So, hmmmm, more than 3 times the US military budget goes missing from the military/pentagon? Go figure?
The 2001 US military budget was $307.8 billion. $664.84 billion was the amount budgeted in 2011.
There is nothing terribly significant about Rumsfeld holding a press conference the day before 9/11 to disclose that the Pentagon couldn't account for $2.1 trillion. It had already been mentioned numerous times, including in the following:
- an AP article on 03 Mar 00;
- a Defense Audit Report on 18 Aug 00;
- Rumsfeld's nomination hearing by the Senate Armed Services Committee on 11 Jan 01;
- a PBS Online Newshour article on 12 Feb 01;
- a Rumsfeld media scrum on 3 Jun 01;
- a Lou Dobbs Moneyline interview of Rumsfeld on 28 Jun 01; and
- testimony before the House Budget and the House Appropriations Committees for the FY 2002 Defense Budget in July 01.
The money was missing in the sense that assets and expenditures hadn't been properly accounted for thanks to 674 computerized accounting, logistics, and personnel systems that were used by the DoD and which didn't talk to each other. By Feb 2002 the "missing" amount had been reduce to $700 billion and was continuing to drop.
There is a very big difference between not being able to account for moneys spent thanks to sloppy accounting procedure and outright theft. Not being able to account for funds does not mean it was stolen.
edit on 7/5/13 by erwalker because: corrected date
Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
However concerning Canada, due to the rampant "nepotism" and selling off of contracts that has been occurring/has occurred within the government, it would not surprise me in the least to see $300 billion go "missing" via accounting error or other lame excuse. That may be 300 times the HRSDC missing-money-scandal, but that was a few years ago and ...
...the BOC continues to force inflation of our currency while arbitrarily devaluing it on the open market at the same time (the CDN dollar should be around $1.60us right now and rising).