Parliamentary budget officer rebukes Trudeau government over spending secrecy
While the government says most of the money is intended for COVID-19 relief, the PBO suggested Parliament was hamstrung in its ability to oversee government spending because of the Liberals’ secrecy.
“While the sum of these measures is significant, the amount of information that is publicly available to track this spending is lacking, thus making it more challenging for parliamentarians to perform their critical role in overseeing government spending and holding it to account,” reads the report.
The budget office went on to note that the Liberals have yet to provide a complete list of COVID-19 measures announced so far, or updated estimates on how much those measures will cost.
“This lack of data is not a result of it not being available,” the PBO report added. “The Department of Finance had been providing biweekly updates to the standing committee on finance, but stopped when Parliament was prorogued in August.”
Source : The Canadian Press Nov 4, 2020
