Transport minister deems scathing audit ‘wake-up call’ for department

The damning audit of Transport Canada that unveiled wasteful spending and strong concerns regarding the awarding of some contracts is a “wake-up call,” a frustrated and disappointed Transport Minister Lisa Raitt said Tuesday.

“Transport Canada has to take the findings of these audits and apply them and do a better job,” she said. “I’m disappointed. I’m going to Ottawa today and I’m going to meet with my officials and ask them specifically what they are doing to ensure they are going to do better in terms of managing the taxpayer’s dollar.”

The expectation for her department, she said, is that they “get the job done.”

Auditors found many weaknesses in procurement practices, based on a sample of 43 files. Primarily, they found the files were not organized, meaning in some instances no information was provided to the auditing team, while incomplete information was handed over in most others.

Overall, the files didn’t demonstrate proper “evidence of review, monitoring and oversight,” thus affecting the integrity of the procurement process, the audit read.

Despite two procurement committees within Transport Canada, the auditors found no sign of quality assurance or monitoring systems. Additionally, they found that three of the four samples requiring approval from one of the oversight committees were never reviewed.

The audit also found Transport Canada was unnecessarily spending more money by paying contractors instead of hiring full-time employees who could do the same work at a lesser cost.

For example, one office within the department paid $712,000 for full-time work of one designer over a five-year period, for an average of $142,000 per year, the audit noted.

The salary for a public servant with equivalent experience would have cost between $50,000 and $57,000 per year, according to the auditors.

“Certainly, we are going to take a closer look at the contracting,” Raitt said. “Certainly we are going to take a closer look at making sure if they are staffing, they are doing it appropriately, that they are not doing this part-time contracting stuff when you can hire full-time people.”

The Liberals said the audit flies in the face of the Conservatives’ reputation as strong fiscal managers.

“The façade of being good fiscal managers when you see this type of audit is very difficult to maintain,” said Liberal MP David McGuinty.

McGuinty also lambasted the prime minister for rotating ministers through Transport Canada so quickly.

“Mr. Harper has shifted ministers as often as some people change shoes, and we’ve seen five ministers in seven years. You can’t expect any minister to get on top of their portfolio in that short amount of time,” he said, adding he feels Raitt should stay with the portfolio for at least the next two years in order to provide some leadership and consistency at the department.

For her part, the minister said she intends to have her department implement all recommendations from the audit.

“But regardless, this is wake up call for the department. And they have a number of things they have to work on,” she said.