ticatfan3
May 12th, 2006, 3:54:43 PM
OTTAWA - The former Liberal government "broke every rule in the book" when it signed a $273-million computer contract for the federal gun registry -- now the subject of a "stop-work" order -- and never reported the costs or terms of the deal to Parliament, a longtime Conservative gun-registry critic alleges.
Saskatchewan Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, who discovered the existence of the 15-year contract last fall, said that it was never reported to Parliament in government estimates on spending, or disclosed by the Treasury Board, which controls the government purse.
A Tory source referred to the 383-page contract, which was obtained by Breitkreuz under the Access to Information Act and provided to CanWest News Service, as the "smoking gun" in the troubled saga of the Canadian Firearms Centre.
CanWest believes Auditor General Sheila Fraser will report Tuesday that the former Liberal government kept the true costs of the gun registry from Parliament and that the problems identified in her initial 2002 audit of the controversial program continued for at least three years despite fierce criticism and the scrutiny of opposition parties.
"When they gave out that $273-million contract, they broke every rule in the book," Breitkreuz said, echoing the phrase that Fraser made famous in her audit of the $250-million sponsorship program.
Former Liberal public works minister Scott Brison disputed the Tory allegations Thursday. "To the best of my knowledge we were extremely vigorous" in reporting gun registry costs to Parliament, he said.
Nevertheless, the Conservatives believe the findings they expect to see in next Tuesday's audit into the firearms program will give them the ammunition they need to scrap the registry.
"I think it's a huge story and in my mind this is twice as big a scandal as the sponsorship scandal because here you've got contracts over $500 million going out and the work being done just doesn't measure up to that kind of money that we're spending," Breitkreuz said.
Public Works Minister Michael Fortier issued a stop-work order at the end of April to "reassess" parts of a contract that allows a computer consortium known as Team Centra to run the Canadian Firearms Centre's gun registration system until 2020.
"It's not the whole contract. It's just some parts of the contract," said Jean-Luc Benoit, a spokesman for the minister.
IRATE AT LEAK
Auditor General Sheila Fraser is "very upset" by the leak of an audit report, due on Tuesday, dealing with the federal gun registry. She says she has strong suspicions about who gave it to the media.
News reports Thursday suggested the previous Liberal government hid the gun program's cost overruns from Parliament.
"We will be speaking to certain people to try to encourage perhaps more (discretion) in the future, and that leaks like this are really not helpful and are also an affront to Parliament," Fraser told the Commons public accounts committee.
The leak did not come from her office, Fraser insisted.
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Saskatchewan Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, who discovered the existence of the 15-year contract last fall, said that it was never reported to Parliament in government estimates on spending, or disclosed by the Treasury Board, which controls the government purse.
A Tory source referred to the 383-page contract, which was obtained by Breitkreuz under the Access to Information Act and provided to CanWest News Service, as the "smoking gun" in the troubled saga of the Canadian Firearms Centre.
CanWest believes Auditor General Sheila Fraser will report Tuesday that the former Liberal government kept the true costs of the gun registry from Parliament and that the problems identified in her initial 2002 audit of the controversial program continued for at least three years despite fierce criticism and the scrutiny of opposition parties.
"When they gave out that $273-million contract, they broke every rule in the book," Breitkreuz said, echoing the phrase that Fraser made famous in her audit of the $250-million sponsorship program.
Former Liberal public works minister Scott Brison disputed the Tory allegations Thursday. "To the best of my knowledge we were extremely vigorous" in reporting gun registry costs to Parliament, he said.
Nevertheless, the Conservatives believe the findings they expect to see in next Tuesday's audit into the firearms program will give them the ammunition they need to scrap the registry.
"I think it's a huge story and in my mind this is twice as big a scandal as the sponsorship scandal because here you've got contracts over $500 million going out and the work being done just doesn't measure up to that kind of money that we're spending," Breitkreuz said.
Public Works Minister Michael Fortier issued a stop-work order at the end of April to "reassess" parts of a contract that allows a computer consortium known as Team Centra to run the Canadian Firearms Centre's gun registration system until 2020.
"It's not the whole contract. It's just some parts of the contract," said Jean-Luc Benoit, a spokesman for the minister.
IRATE AT LEAK
Auditor General Sheila Fraser is "very upset" by the leak of an audit report, due on Tuesday, dealing with the federal gun registry. She says she has strong suspicions about who gave it to the media.
News reports Thursday suggested the previous Liberal government hid the gun program's cost overruns from Parliament.
"We will be speaking to certain people to try to encourage perhaps more (discretion) in the future, and that leaks like this are really not helpful and are also an affront to Parliament," Fraser told the Commons public accounts committee.
The leak did not come from her office, Fraser insisted.
© The Windsor Star 2006 Ads By Google
Essays on Death PenaltySearch our database of 101,000http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=c58279df-95e5-49fc-b01e-d64348dc864e&k=86277