CUPE presented to the Senate Committee on Legal and Constituitional Affairs this week on the federal government’s proposed Federal Accountability Act, C-2.
The union took the opportunity to critique the bill for opening new loopholes, and ignoring old loopholes in the rule governing how the federal government does business.
CUPE argues:
The bill won’t prevent the abuse of public money seen in the sponsorship scandal or the National Defence contracting scandal.
Government funding of non-profit organizations will be much more closely scrutinized, but contracts with private companies will not.
Overall the government will be less accountable as department managers will have an incentive to move funds towards audit-exempt private contracts.
The union proposed changes to the act that would subject contracts to private companies to the same rules as funding to non-profit organizations and agencies.
