Jake, I asked Gordon Menzie to respond to your concerns
about the Governor General's Audit. He replied as follows:
With respect to your statement in your letter, "The
fact the Auditor General was prevented from auditing any of the sales
contracts executed by the Old Board of Commissioners gives the
perception of a cover-up and raises the suspicion of Corporate
Fraud" I would like to make the following comments.
First of all, your use of the word 'prevented' is
incorrect and may appear misleading. To be clear, the Office of
the Auditor General (OAG) was allowed complete freedom to scope its
audit plan without any direction, interference or influence by anyone,
any group or most of all the CWB. The OAG and their staff had
complete control over the level of detail their inquiry would take and
the amount of time they would take to complete it. I understand
that the time estimates the OAG budgeted for the examination increased
from 5,000 hours to over 12,000 hours. The final report was
initially intended to be completed June 2001 and it was instead
completed in February 2002. The OAG investigated everything and
anything they believed relevant to the examination which by their
estimates cost approximately $1.5 million.
The point of this is to underscore that the OAG was not
'prevented' from examining anything. When Ms. Sheila Fraser
writes, "This examination was restricted to the pool accounts for
the year ending in 2000," it should be understood that the
examination was restricted in the audit plan by the OAG themselves, for
the OAG's own reasons. Moreover, the amendment to the CWB Act that
invited the OAG to conduct their audit was written without imposing any
restrictions on reviewing the CWB's financial transactions. To
quote from the Act, "Within two years after the day this action
comes into force, the Auditor General of Canada may commence an audit of
the accounts and financial transactions of the corporation for such
fiscal years as the Auditor General considers appropriate..."
Although the majority of the OAG's examination was broad in scope, they
did look at detail when they deemed it necessary.
As you know the OAG is one of the most independent
bodies in Canada. The Auditor General of Canada reports directly
to Parliament, is appointed for a 10 year term, and cannot be
re-appointed.
