Remember This Happend Under Dion's Watch

He might not have been directly involved but he was part of the Crietien/Martin team........

Auditor general is earning her pay
Dec. 5, 2006. 01:00 AM

If what the auditor general says is accurate, Senator Siesta might as well move over in the public servants' hall of shame. He now looks like an amateur in a pro league.

Remember the infamous Andrew Thompson? He's the senator who was booted out of his sinecure eight years ago after it was discovered he spent most of his time sunning himself in Mexico. He showed up for only 47 regular work days out of 1,088 over a 15-year span.

But now it appears Senator Siesta has been eclipsed in the Truancy Department by Ron Stewart, a former CFL star who stands accused of having made a second, 26-year career out of doing absolutely nothing. Stewart, whose activities (and inactivity) were detailed extensively by Auditor General Sheila Fraser last week, officially retired three years ago from his post as ombudsman for prison inmates.

A word of caution here. None of Fraser's findings has been proved in court and Stewart has not had a chance to offer up a defence. But the evidence she has presented is disturbing.

"We found little evidence that he worked or generated any work product," Fraser's report says. She focused mainly on the last six years of his term, during which she alleges he played hooky 20 per cent of his time — at a minimum. Apparently, from spring until fall, Stewart enjoyed relaxing at his island cottage where he couldn't be reached even by phone.

Although he seemed to be in semi-permanent vacation mode, she says Stewart managed to go 14 years without claiming a single vacation day and converted all his time off into cash. The auditor concluded that Stewart was the beneficiary of $325,000 in "improper and questionable" payments, including unearned leave and padded expenses.

Worse yet, she claims Stewart divvied up the office surplus among staff three years running, recording it as overtime. Allegedly, more than $260,000 in "bonuses" was distributed in this way.

How could successive governments have fumbled the ball so badly? How can they be prevented from repeating the same old mistakes? Do we really need an ombudsman's office for prison inmates? How many other obscure agencies are milking taxpayers for all they're worth?

Sadly, Fraser's annual report seems to be the running answer to that last query. If only the government were half as good at recovering the misdirected money she's uncovering.

This is an edited version of an editorial that appeared yesterday in the Halifax Chronicle Herald.