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Post -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Liberals buried gun costs: Auditor-General to reveal problems with firearms registry lingered for years -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OTTAWA - The huge costs incurred by the federal gun registry were obscured by the former Liberal government deep within mandatory reports on government spending, preventing Canadians from learning how much money was being spent on the poorly managed program, the Auditor-General is expected to reveal next week. CanWest News Service has learned the problems identified in Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's 2002 report on the gun registry persisted for about three years, and she will note there were serious difficulties related to the handling of computer contracts. Ms. Fraser's upcoming report will lay the blame at the feet of both top public servants and their former Liberal masters when it is released on Tuesday. CanWest News Service has also learned that Senator Michael Fortier, the Public Works Minister, has recently issued "a stop work order" relating to a computer contract awarded to the company that is running the firearms registry. "From what I understand, this is done when we want to make sure our money is well-spent," said Jean-Luc Benoit, a spokesman for the Minister. "It's not usual, but it's not unusual." In her 2002 report, Ms. Fraser found Parliament was "kept in the dark" about the costs related to the registry, and that those costs had risen to $1-billion from the estimated $119-million when the program was created in 1995. The original findings ratcheted up anger over the government's decision to force long-gun owners, such as hunters and farmers, to register their weapons. The Auditor-General sparked interest in the long-awaited followup when she said in a recent advisory that "we noted a matter with significant implications for Parliament's control of public spending" during her investigation into the Canadian Firearms Centre. In interviews this week, Conservative sources and those familiar with the program said Ms. Fraser is expected to show the problems she identified in 2002 languished, despite fierce criticism and the scrutiny of opposition parties. Also, the report will note that costs continued to grow because Ottawa was under contract with two competing computer firms for years before deciding to switch to a more advanced information technology system that could be adapted to the needs of the gun registry. The decision to switch from the original IT firm, run by EDS Canada, to Team Centra, a consortium of computer firms led by CGI Business Solutions, was held up for almost four years due to long-delayed legislative changes to the firearms program, several ministerial reviews and the repeatedly changing requirements of the registry's computer system. A 2004 report, completed for the government and obtained by Tory MP Garry Breitkreuz, warned the firearms centre "faces difficult decisions" and that path was made more difficult because "their legislative mandate, originally set in the Firearms Act in 1997, has been unstable since then." The myriad amendments to the computer contracts over that four-year period, made to adapt to the program's changing mandate, steadily drove up the cost of doing business, at huge expense to taxpayers. "It really is a sad tale," said one source with knowledge of the registry's problems. Conservative sources said the report will show the Liberals failed to clearly identify those costs in mandatory reports on government spending, instead slotting the increased price under nondescript headings such as "administration" that would not be easily detected. Despite suggestions that Ms. Fraser will report several hundred million dollars in cost overruns related to the registry, one source said the amounts have been "hugely overrated" and that the Auditor-General's report finds the long-running problems are now under control. Ms. Fraser, the source said, is actually "very kind" to the current management team of the firearms centre. Observers trace the management problems with the gun registry back to Maryantonnett Flumian, the chief executive of the Canadian Firearms Centre between February, 2000, and June, 2001. Her successors, many say, were burdened with the effects of her decisions. In February, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Ms. Flumian deputy head of Service Canada, a new government department intended to streamline government services for Canadians. The gun registry has been stabilized in the past year, with much of the credit due to William Baker, the commissioner of firearms, observers said. "There's a lot of old news," a source said of the report, noting that it was originally to have been released in February and was completed months before that. "Two years ago, there was a different government. Two years ago, there was very little parliamentary oversight on all sorts of expenses, including the advertising budget." Already, Conservative MPs are suggesting parallels between the way the Liberal government tried to hide the huge costs of the gun registry and the way that the government covered up spending related to the $250-million sponsorship program. Mr. Harper is expected to use the Auditor-General's report as a reason to begin dismantling the disputed program, which is opposed by many of the party's core supporters, particularly in Western Canada. RECAP MAIN POINTS RECOMMENDATIONS |