"Biggest Scandal in Canadian History": HRDC Audit Starts Probity War (Working Paper 23)
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Authors
Sutherland, S.L.
Date
2001-08
Type
working paper
Language
en
Keyword
Scandal , Canadian History , Audit
Alternative Title
Abstract
The article describes the nearly year-long political and media uproar that followed on the
release in January, 2000 of a qualitative or soft “audit” of management control in the federal government
department, Human Resources Development Canada, and analyses the contributing factors. The article
argues that the auditors’ examination of project files for programs delivered by grants and contributions
was so abstract and poorly executed that nothing whatever can be concluded from the work. Factors that
favoured the “scandal” interpretation include across-government New Public Management reforms where
accountability has not been re-theorized for Canada’s Westminster system of government; Canada’s
electoral volatility that starves the country of experienced politicians and spurs the tradition of political
compensation for electoral support; and the political role of the Office of the Auditor General. This paper
has been accepted for publication by the journal Critical Perspectives on Accounting, which holds copyright.