Tracy Gray: Auditor General’s findings underscore serious problems

Tracy Gray is the Conservative Party MP for the riding of Kelowna–Lake Country.

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To what extent is the Liberal government acting as a good steward of public funds?

I have recently been reviewing reports brought forward by the Auditor General on three major issues within the Liberal government’s operations. These reports are concerning and warrant immediate attention.

The Auditor General’s responsibilities include auditing operations of the federal government and providing independent information, assurance, and advice regarding the stewardship of public funds. The Auditor General is non-partisan, and not beholden to a political party or the Prime Minister.

On June 4, 2024, the Auditor General (AG) tabled three reports that reviewed areas of federal responsibilities. These reports were not kind to the Prime Minister and his Liberal government.

In the first report, the AG found taxpayer-funded contracts were consistently inappropriately awarded by the Liberal government to well-connected insiders at McKinsey, a prominent consulting firm. With the firm having been awarded $200 million in contracts since 2015, this is a significant amount of public funds to have been mishandled.

A staggering 90% of contracts awarded to McKinsey did not follow the appropriate guidelines. In many cases, it was unclear what the purpose of the contracts were, or if the desired outcomes were even achieved.

The Liberal Government frequently sole-sourced contracts directly to McKinsey with no explanation why a non-competitive process was justified and as a result, an unbelievable 70% of contracts awarded were non-competitive.

McKinsey’s history makes these findings especially egregious. McKinsey’s marketing strategy to boost opioid sales contributed to the creation of the opioid crisis, a role they had to pay $600 million in damages in 2021 following lawsuits in the United States. Especially for those of us here in British Columbia watching so many people struggle with the toxic drug crisis, the inappropriate favours given to McKinsey by the Liberal government is especially insulting.

In the second report on Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), the AG found that the Liberal government allowed the supposed environmental fund to routinely mismanage public funds and violate rules. SDTC did not follow the required conflict of interest policies in an astonishing 90 cases, spent nearly $76 million on projects that were in a conflict of interest, $59 million on projects allowed to have been awarded any money, and $12 million on projects that were in both a conflict of interest and ineligible for funding.

In an especially bold instance, the SDTC chair, not following conflict of interest guidelines, awarded $217,000 to her own company.

In the third report, the AG outlined the dire state of combatting cybercrime in Canada where it was found government agencies do not have the capacity or the tools to effectively enforce existing laws intended to protect Canadians from cyberattacks.

The growing volume and sophistication of cybercrime has been allowed to increase in intensity, mostly unopposed. Even worse, the AG’s report exposed thousands of reports of cybercrime that were not passed along to the RCMP, including serious crimes such as online child sexual exploitation.

In 2022, Canadians lost $531 million due to fraud, three-quarters of which were due to cybercrime. These numbers do not take into account that 90-95% percent of all cybercrime goes unreported, according to the Canadian Anti‑Fraud Centre.

Canadians deserve to be safe, and to know that existing laws will be enforced. The AG’s findings on this issue underscores serious problems that the Liberal government is not adequately addressing.

The overall situation outlined in these three reports by the Auditor General is unacceptable. My Conservative colleagues and I believe in responsible stewardship of public funds. Conservatives are pushing for answers and accountability on these sustained and costly ethical failures.

If you need assistance with federal programs or have any thoughts to share, on this issue or others, feel free to reach out, at 250-470-5075 or at tracy.gray@parl.gc.ca.