OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper pulled the plug on a promise to create a watchdog to oversee federal appointments almost immediately after announcing it five years ago.
And yet, the public appointments commission secretariat has cost taxpayers more than $1.6 million dollars since 2006-07.
Nearly $300,000 of that was spent in 2010-11, according to government spending documents tabled in the House of Commons Thursday.
The office has had one administrative employee since 2007-08, but has not vetted a single federal appointment.
Harper’s promise was part and parcel of the Federal Accountability Act — the 2006 campaign promise the Conservatives said would clean up Ottawa, make government more transparent and end cronyism.
The prime minister quickly pulled out when he ran into an opposition that was hostile about the man he appointed to head of the commission – a recently-retired oilman from Alberta named Gwyn Morgan.
At that time, Harper said he’d “obviously need a majority” to get the commission off the ground.
Even with his coveted majority the commission is M.I.A.
A spokeswoman for the prime minister said there are no imminent plans to get the office going.
Without the commission, Canadians are often in the dark about how some officials – such as the newly-minted auditor general — become appointed to senior positions, NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus said.
“If we had a proper process with a proper commissioner who could ensure that the process was fair and the candidates were qualified, then Canadians could have confidence in the civil service,” he said.
Instead, the process by which the Conservatives settled on Michael Ferguson, a uni-lingual candidate for auditor general, has come under intense scrutiny.
“This is not to undercut Mr. Ferguson, but he has been put in a really bad position, because he’s being undermined from the start,” Angus said.
The job posting government advertised specified that “proficiency in both official languages is necessary,” a qualification Ferguson lacks.
Although no opposition member has questioned Ferguson’s auditing abilities, the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Quebecois have each attacked the government for not sticking to the criteria and choosing a bilingual candidate.
The nomination had to be approved in both the House of Commons and the Senate. With Conservative majorities and Liberal abstentions in both chambers, Ferguson’s nomination was approved Thursday.
In much the same way MPs grilled Ferguson this week, the Liberals and NDP in 2006 interrogated Harper’s choice to head the public appointments commission.
The opposition was unyielding in questioning Morgan about any ties to Harper
that could have taken shape during his time as a fundraiser for the Conservative party or as CEO for EnCana.
“There was a promise to ensure that the people who were brought forward for appointments were fully qualified, that they meet the criteria and that Canadians could have confidence,” Angus said. “Instead they’re pumping money into this year after year with nobody there.”
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