Senate's Internal Economy Board Removed Damning Findings From Sen. Duffy’s Audit Report Before It Was Tabled In The Senate
The Conservative Senate Crisis continues unabated ....
"The Senate’s internal economy committee sanitized the original audit of Sen. Mike Duffy’s expenses to remove damning findings, documents obtained by CTV News show.
A confidential report obtained by CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife shows the original version of Duffy’s audit found that the senator broke the Senate’s “very clear” and “unambiguous” residency rules."
CTV News
Pam Wallin's departure yesterday left me with nagging doubts about the auditor, Deloitte.
First came news that Wallin had voluntarily "recused" herself from the Conservative caucus. Then CTV reported she was booted out after the PMO got a sneak peak at the preliminary audit.
Surely this raises some concern about whether Deloitte operated at arm's length from the PMO. Were the auditors feeding advance preliminary information back to help Harper aides with spin and damage control?
Did the auditors play some role in Wright's $90,000 back door cheque writing? Did they help Harper jettison Wallin to put as much distance between his office and the hapless senator before the story comes out in the public?
Has the PMO had any supervisory role in the audit process or any comment privileges?
The big accounting firms make a tonne of money from government contracts and direct services, something that inevitably raises eyebrows to the notion of their "independence."
In a situation like this surely they have to be vigilant in ensuring there's not even the faintest whiff of collaboration between the auditors and the political process.
At least the report you've mentioned shows Duffy wasn't wrong about the PMO agreeing to see the audit "went easy on" him.
Posted by
The Mound of Sound |
10:21 am, May 18, 2013