The Liberal government reopened last year’s audited books in November to add nearly $10-billion in spending, a move that required a second sign off by the Auditor-General for the first time under current public-sector accounting rules.
The Auditor-General’s office told The Globe and Mail Wednesday that it is the first time the office has provided a “dual-dated” audit opinion under current accounting rules. “Looking back since the introduction to accrual accounting in 2003, there were no dual-dated audit opinions on the government’s consolidated financial statements,” the office said.
“The books are tabled very, very late, and then you find out they’ve been reopened after they’ve been audited to put in some spending. It just reeks of lack of transparency,” he said in an interview. “I would like very much to hear from the Auditor-General justifying reopening the books and the reason why.”
Tuesday’s fiscal update said the deficit for the 2020-21 fiscal year was $327.7-billion, which was smaller than the $354.2-billion projection in the April budget, even after including the new spending that was added in the November revision. “The government considered the impact of the court ruling and concluded that the change in estimated legal liability warranted an adjustment, and the financial statements were revised accordingly to include the impact of the court ruling,” the minister’s office said, adding that the decision complied with public-sector accounting standards.
Spending is what governments are supposed to do with the money. You can discuss how you want it to be spent. The opposition will challenge. But the job of government is to use the money they have received and spend it.
Typical for the Liberals - can’t explain it, so cover it up.
Harper moved profits from the sale of shares from the fiscal year they were made in to the next fiscal year in order to appear to balance the budget. Just to try and win another election. This was done to add an unforeseen expense.
Bad Liberals …playing us again ..gotta go Blue
That was clearly a responsible decision. Did anyone read the article
Who cares nothing sticks to Liberals. No show here folks move along.
acoyne Can any Canadian government department be trusted now?
$10B in spending. That’s 100,000 $100,000 government jobs. At a tax rate of 27%. The GOC collects $2.7B. Backdating is illegal. The fact the GM has mentioned it suggests it thinks the government is doing something illegal. I strongly doubt it.