The Public Service and taxpayers' money

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU. CHISU, CD, PMSC, FEC, CET, P. Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East It is well known that in Canada we have three level of government: municipal, provincial and federal. It is also well known that we only have one taxpayer to pay taxes for all of them. As a matter of common sense, one would expect that public money be spent responsibly in the interest of the citizens and the country to improve life. Then we would expect the Public Service at all levels of government to employ qualified people who apply the highest ethical standards to the managing of the public purse. Unfortunately, lately it has become increasingly obvious that this is not the case. In fact, employment in the Public Service is ballooning at all levels of governments at an unprecedented rate, while care of the taxpayer, aka the judicious spending of public money for our benefit, is more and more diminished. Take for example, the federal Public Service. It is estimated that $15 billion was spent on outsourcing last year alone, yet the federal Public Service is also growing in leaps and bounds. One must realistically ask, where the expertise and the work of the public service is, if they cannot do more of the work in house? As it always happens when some dirt is unveiled, apparently a parliamentary committee is trying to unpack the $15-billion black hole of spending that federal departments spent on outsource contracting. Based on my experience of parliamentary committees, I am not sure how much progress MPs will make with four hearings of two hours each, in uncovering and untangling the web of a well protected mismanagement and obvious incompetence. Here is the big question for MPs on the government operations and estimates committee: why is the public service growing in leaps and bounds while outsourcing is exploding right alongside that growth in the bureaucracy? Common sense eh…. MPs want to know if taxpayers are getting value for money using all these contractors. They have become a "shadow" or ghost public service that can dodge the staffing rules bureaucrats have to follow. My prediction is that the MPs will not get any satisfactory answers to their questions, only a lot of rhetoric to justify the expense…. A Carleton University research team has been digging into contracts to get a handle on how many billions are spent and on what. Last year, it estimated the government spent $15 billion, of which $4.7 billion was on IT contracts. They also found that a big part of costs are amendments to contracts, which clearly points to a hidden incompetence. About 272,075 contracts have been active since 2017-18. About 16 per cent of them have been amended at least once. These amendments added $25.6 billion to the original cost. Was anybody held to account???…. Here are some interesting findings: On average: Contract duration is about 10 months and is worth $423,000 (for contracts over $10,000). Longest: 34.8 years (June 2015 to March 2050 for the consortium to replace the Champlain Bridge in Montreal). Really????? The Confederation bridge was build in 4 years……. Biggest: $5.7 billion to Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions for office building management. ArriveCAN: A head-scratching revelation that the cost of the much-reviled ArriveCAN app is on track to hit $54 million. Stunned, app developers say it could have been done for about $1 million. One should ask why there is a shortage of app developers in government and why there is a shortage of the right skills despite the increased hiring of personnel. Is the Public Service hiring the wrong skills? There is definitively a question of value for money when both contracting and hiring is increasing but services don't seem to be getting any better. We saw a summer of delays for processing passports, immigration applications and throughput at airports. One should ask the government: What steps are being taken to ensure that the quality of the service to the public and to other government departments is at the forefront? Although the Treasury Board is the employer and rule-maker, the actual authority for contracting and human resources has been turned over to deputy ministers, the public servants who manage their departments. The question is: Does Treasury Board have any role apart from setting a general framework? And as guardian of the public purse does it ever follow up on any of the contracts that are sent out? Another question that arises from these issues: When will the auditor-general audit Treasury Board's guide for cost estimation and "make or buy" decisions? What goes on at the provincial as well as the municipal level should also be investigated. We need to make the people handling our money realize, that it is important that public money be spent responsibly. I conclude that outsourcing means higher costs and lower quality services for Canadians. It erodes transparency, accountability and the institutional knowledge of the Public Service. What do you think?