Once again the Auditor General of Canada released a damning report against the federal government. The most recent report is the AG's November 2003 report - which was released on February 10th of this year. The report blasts the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs which failed to track spending on land claims worth more than $1.2 billion and provide useful performance reports.

The AG's report examined the implementation of two land claim agreements, the Gwich'in people of the Northwest Territories and the Inuit of Nunavut. After the two land claim agreements received royal assent it was expected that the Department would keep Parliament informed of its expenditures on the two claims.

Amazingly, the AG discovered the Department does not know the cost of implementing the individual land claim agreements. The Department does not track its direct and overhead costs for implementing land claims.

Specifically the AG's report states, "We were unable to find any such financial report for either of the agreement, nor were we able to find any process to capture financial information for management purposes. We noted that when the two implementation plans were signed the parties agreed there would be capital transfers of $1.12 billion to the Inuit of Nunavut to be paid out between 1990 and 2007 and $141 million to be paid out to the Gwich'in between 1992 and 2007. We also noted that there would be ongoing activity to carry out its federal responsibilities under claim. Yet there is no reporting on the costs of these activities."

The Department responded to the AG's findings by stating, "The Department does not believe it would be possible or particularly useful, to force federal departments to start keeping track of every operating and maintenance dollar spent on an agreement-by-agreement basis."

The Department's response is outrageous. Billions of tax dollars have been spent on comprehensive land claims over the years and billions more will be spent. If the Department isn't keeping track of the costs, how are taxpayers to know if they are receiving value for their tax dollars

If you think the Department's annual performance reports provide useful details to taxpayers - think again.

The AG found performance reporting on the two land claim agreements to be useless in holding the federal government accountable. The reports contained no overview of outstanding obligations; no timelines for implementing performance targets; no information on performance against objectives; and no process to ensure accuracy of the reported information.

Fear not taxpayer, the Department has declared it will endeavour to improve their reporting and financial tracking.

Too bad it took a report from the Auditor General for Indian Affairs to implement basic reporting and accountability 101.