Canada's Auditor General, Sheila Fraser tabled the country's Fall Economic Report today.  Among the files audited were Canada's Economic Action Plan (stimulus), government service delivery by auditing three random agencies, the acquisition of military helicopters, and the Canada Border Agency among others.

Whenever an Auditor General releases a report, it usually leaves the government scrambling to explain certain expenditures.  However, when it comes to the Action Plan and the G20, there won't be any numbers on the amount of jobs created or saved, or the total expenditures on the G20 until the AG's spring report is released.  That's not to say that Ms. Fraser and her staff are nothing but thorough since she began her ten year term in 2001.   She has brought to light numerous cases of neglect, waste, and concern, including warning of old computer systems putting tax refunds and cheques at risk, evaluating Afghan aid projects, looking into the expenses of Members of Parliament, as well as uncovering the sponsorship scandal. 

I think it's fair to say from this sampling of her work that she is as serious and professional as it gets, which is why today's report has so much buzz surrounding it.  Frankly, it's good to know that there is an independent body that can scrutinize the public sector.

As for today's report, the press will be able to report on the findings once it is officially tabled in the House of Commons at 2 PM Eastern.

We'll update you when the information is released.

UPDATE: Sheila Fraser revealed a mostly positive review of the nine files she and her office investigated for this report.  She found that federal regulation of institutions like banks was very good saying, "Experts have linked Canada's relative success during the recent global economic downturn to its approach to regulating and supervising banks."  The report said that government agencies are actually doing a decent job of getting better at service delivery and that the investigation into three random agencies found that, "management practices in the areas we examined were sound."

However, she found that the purchase of helicopters, as well as the methodology for said purchases, were troubling.  The audit found that National Defence didn't follow its own rules when it came to oversight and management on large purchases and that only the base cost of the purchase was reported to the Treasury Board.  None of the costs to maintain and to train people to operate the helicopters was passed on, greatly underestimating the actual costs to which Ms. Fraser said,"After lengthy delays and significant cost increases, National Defence still has not completely estimated what it will cost to operate these helicopters. Nor has it put in place all the elements, such as personnel, needed to maintain them over the long term," adding, "This is cause for concern."   She also criticized the government for not opening up a bidding process to help lower costs and encourage competition, something which the opposition parties have already attacked the government for with the purchase of the new F35 jet fighter.

Untendered projects and runaway spending on large military acquisitions is the red meat of politics, especially when everyone is expecting an election in the spring.  Read the entire report here