The Auditor General (AG) can issue up to four reports annually showing where Canadians receive value for their tax dollars - and where we don't. Customarily, the AG has only issued three reports a year.

So it is refreshing that the AG has now decided to use her 4th report opportunity to issue an annual "Status Report" on previous audits conducted by her office.

This report, tabled yesterday in the House of Commons, was originally scheduled to be released on September 26th but with the prorogation of the House and a new Throne Speech, it was delayed by three weeks. And no wonder, it was another damning indictment of waste and mismanagement within key areas of the federal public service.

Of course, the real blame here must be laid at the doorstep of the federal government and its political leadership. This is not the first time that officials have been made aware of various problems. As AG Sheila Fraser noted: "This is a wake-up call for departments. They recognize what needs to be done, and they have made some improvements. But overall, the pace is too slow and the results often fall short."

No kidding! In five separate chapters, four separate government departments (HRDC, Health Canada, National Defence and Industry Canada) all receiving failing grades for their incompetence in correcting shortcomings identified in previous audits.

Take HRDC for example and its management (or lack thereof) of the social insurance number (SIN) regime. Back in December 1998, Chapter 16 of the AG's report found that there were over 4 million more SIN numbers in circulation than there were adults over 20 years of age. Under fierce opposition questioning in the House of Commons, Pierre Pettigrew, then the HRDC minister said, "we are following up on the recommendations of the Auditor General." Of course the recommendation was to fix the problem.

Then yesterday the AG found in Chapter 1 of her Status Report - returning to the progress made since the 1998 audit - that, wait for it, "the number of usable SINs for people over 20 exceeds the actual population in that age group by 5 million."

But it gets worse. Chapter 27 of the AG's report in November 1999 found that National Defence (DND) had "difficulty forecasting the level of training required and, as a result, it is paying for services and capacity it is not using."

This audit went on to note that DND's flight training at Portage-la-Prairie, Manitoba, had seen payments for unused capacity of approximately $11 million go to none other than Bombardier as part of a $165 million multi-year contract signed back in 1991.

Fast-forward to Chapter 5 of yesterday's report and the same type of problem was identified again. This time some $65 million has been shelled out for NATO pilot training - under a 20-year $2.8 billion deal - training that has not occurred.

These are just two examples of the waste and mismanagement that the AG continues to uncover. Worse still, the Prime Minister continues to profess that he and his party are offering Canadians "good government." Please, spare us!

Tax Fact:
The state of West Virginia recently spent $90,000 to partly sponsor a car in four NASCAR Busch Series stock car races. Democratic Gov. Bob Wise championed the project, saying it would help create "a motorsports identity" for the state. Sadly, in its inaugural race, driver Damon Lusk smacked the Dodge into a wall 13 laps into the 250-lap race and posted a 42nd-place finish in the field of 43. Gov. Wise quipped, "That's the break in this sport, I guess." It seems our American friends have their own version of sponsorgate.