Thursday, April 01, 2010

House of Commons and Senate needs to show Auditor General some common sense and dollars

Witness just what is happening as we speak over the pond in the United Kingdom, fiscal accountability has made its return through a parliamentary review of the expenses incurred by Members of Parliaments and Lords in their House of Commons and Lords, originally refusing to release details after it was finished, the English people, subjects or commoners wanted to know where their pound was privately going, so leaks began to show as to how important the audit was and for exactly what they spent on the public dime. Altogether, this now will bring a great tidal wave of change to Great Britain it has not seen in half a century, where the Speaker of the House and other high ranking Members of Parliament are relegated to the sidelines as the whole disaster blows up in front of them, enter its North American colony, the Dominion of Canada, into the international economic fray that has affected Europe from Iceland up in the north all the way down to Greece in the south. Like Old Blighty, a similar controversy is stiring here in the Great White North, where for the past nine months, its saintly Auditor General Sheila Fraser, yes she the author of the sponsorship program report that proved $100 million of its $250 million went to Liberal insiders advertising firms and government entities in forms like untendered job grants, has asked the Conservative government if she can simply audit the $520 million expenses of the Members of Parliament and Senators in our House of Commons and Senate to make sure all is well spent.

The federal Tories however though, along with its governing all party committees, being the House's Board of Internal Economy and the Senate's Internal Economy Committee, do not want her to both conduct this value for money and performance audit on their spending habits, something that allows her office to publicly audit financial statement per annum a private firm, being Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler does currently, with elected officials stating her office has neither the authority nor the jurisdiction, which makes one wonder just who has their hand on the controls ensuring proper management if her Office of the Auditor General of Canada indeed does not. This all seems to not just be short changing the Canadian public fiscally, but perhaps also on the issue of democratic govermental honesty, accountability and transparency socially. When one looks at politics in our culture in the now, one can see how the lack of ethics and moral fibre in the past has shaped the landscape it plays its unprincipled game upon, which sadly is how we base our deformed worldview on how it will play itself upon into the future, where rights and freedoms become greed and malice which breed ignorance and irresponsibility to the rule of law as it tis without its advancement towards productive virtues such as truth, trust and the highest good.

So the democratic process is slowly being nickled and dimed by those lawmakers who swore to uphold its principles and defend it from the very actions they now do, not just here in Canada but elsewhere as previously mentioned, all of which create scandals, fiascos and crises where none truly need be, if only the inside and elite leaders of the day were more open to their people, citizens and finally taxpayer who pay those essential taxes which make up a politician's salary. Principles and values of the day go beyond the economic, politically we must remind ourselves that in life more is valuable that our adoration of the almighty dollar, our almost religious fervor of buying and owning the most lustfully modern and brand newest consumable goods, or attending the weekly mass at the mall, an institutional structure that we lay in debt to as one whole society, being a human is of intrinsic value itself, not an extrinsic number with no purpose or meaning in the life we live. We defeat ourselves when refusing to recognize or realize victory, this is the case in full when looking at the fair, checked and balanced request of Miss Fraser to know where the $440 million spent in the House of Commons and $93 million spent in the Senate is going towards, she has identified the ideal we seek from our higher officials and only now is looking for backing to optimize its vision, mission and performance for the greater efficiency, efficacy and execution which leads to overall excellence, equality and enjoyment in governance by, of and for the citizenry at large, therefore I would ask that all Canadians stand up now, support your Auditor General's independent call for real democratic governmental honesty, accountability and transparency, where the system today exempts it from external oversight audits and Freedom of Information requests, so finally once and for all we can find out exactly where the Loonie buck actually stops.