Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government has been dragging its feet on using industry standard accounting procedures. Do the ministers not want to know how to spend taxpayers' money wisely?
The financial information strategy was launched in 1995 but the auditor general says that the government is not only late on delivering but is not following through. Its commitment is weak and the progress is slow. After seven years government departments still do not speak the same accounting language linking cost to performance.
Government managers cannot make the needed changes to improve their stewardship of tax dollars without political leadership. With millions if not billions of dollars spent on lost reports, verbal contracts, auditors finding empty files and Liberal Party donors linked to untendered contracts, it is no wonder the government does not want to improve record keeping and provide all the federal departments and agencies with the most modern accounting tools available.
Canadians deserve better. We must kick-start the financial information strategy. It is our money so let us do it.