OPEN LETTER TO MR. MILLER, MP.
The media is still writing about Mr. Duffy's supposedly fraudulent spending of thousands of dollars, but very rarely about Auditor General Mr. Michael Ferguson's spending of $23.5 millions of taxpayer money to find $991,917 in supposedly illegal Senate spending. This means 23.7 times more for the investigation than the actual benefit. Only in Canada? Mr. Ferguson's enquiry cost is an insult to hard working taxpayers, it is outrageous and ludicrous. He has abused the public trust. One "good" from the study: it exposes the greed and waste of our overpaid high level bureaucrats.
The auditor general should be investigated for the excessive spending of $23 millions. I think that a competent accounting firm, in the real world, could do the auditing for less than one half of a million, still a lot in comparison to the benefit. Beside, the RCMP has already uncovered most of the senator's falseexpense claims at a (hopefully) much more reasonable cost.
Did Mr. Ferguson himself benefit from all those millions? Were there other beneficiaries? In comparison, a senator makes $138, 700 per year, a total for the 105 senators amounts to 14.5 millions per year, well below Mr. Ferguson's spending for just an investigation!!How many investigators did he employ? At what hourly rate? How much time was charged for ( like with the Senate) doing nothing productive? What are the qualifications of these big spenders? It is my money, I have the right to know!
Of course, Mr Ferguson will say , as all bureaucrats do, that he just followed the rules. Our system at the highest level seems indeed most of the time to be that costly, slow, inefficient and self serving. Look for example at the Brian Mulroney inquiry, $14 millions spent to chase Mr. Mulroney for $300.000. The ratio of inquiry cost versus "benefit" is 46!!
Mr. Miller, I am pretty sure that you do not personally agree with this outrageous waste of your and my money. So I am asking you: Who can audit the auditor general? Is your government willing to do anything?
Maks Zupan
Owen Sound
