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Who Audits the Auditor, and why it’s not news…

Deloitte and Touche.
Auditors of Attawapiskat.
It turns out, for one of the 4 largest Auditing Firms on the planet, this firm has faced alot of critisism , charges and fines .  After the 2006 election, they were forced to retract their audit of the Conservative Party of Canada.  From the Ottawa Citizen

“The Conservative party had to amend its national campaign expense return for the 2006 election and re-classify nearly $400,000 in advertising expenditures after Elections Canada formally questioned the original return, Elections Canada records show.

The change required the party’s auditor, Deloitte & Touche LLP , to withdraw its original opinion of approval for the Conservative election books and submit a new opinion nearly 11 months after the election…” snip

“…In its auditors’ report accompanying the new return, Deloitte & Touche said “our opinion, originally issued on May 18, 2006, has been withdrawn and the Registered Party Return in respect of General Election Expenses has been revised to reflect a reclassification of certain advertising expenditures.”

The unusual readjustment took place in the midst of an Elections Canada investigation into $1.2 million of radio and TV ads that 67 Tory candidates have claimed as expenses even though the ads were paid via quick “in and out” cash transfers from party headquarters.”

So, this company seems to have provided “favourable” audits of the Conservative Party of Canada and then enjoyed millions of dollars in contracts to the Harper Government.  Are you surprised that they bungled the Attawapiskat audit to reflect the “talking points” of the Harper Government?

All of that pales in comparison to what’s at stake here.  A woman’s life.  A mother.  A Chief.  A visionary historical figure.  Against what?  A venal figure, a blip in history of a Prime Minister who divided and destroyed a promising democracy.  A puppet Governor General.  A neutered Parliament.  A corrupt police force.  A stacked Senate and Judiciary.

So why does the national news media ignore all of this pertinent information?  Why do they continue to demonise Chief Spence and cast aspersions onto the Idle No More movement?  Because they profit directly from the Government and the Energy Lobby.  Government has become one of the largest advertisers for mainstream television news, followed closely by the Energy Industry.  The mainstream media, Postmedia, Global, Black Press all benefit from the status quo.  They rely heavily on misinformation from the radical right wing Fraser Institute, MacDonald/Laurier Institute, Manning Centre for Democracy…I refer you to Sixth Estate , for a comprehensive collection of right wing thinktanks…

“These organizations include the Fraser Institute, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, the Montreal Economic Institute, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, the C.D. Howe Institute, which I refer to as the Big Five, and their most recent sibling, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. The irony of naming a free-market think tank over the only two prime ministers in our history to repeatedly blow the budget building thickly subsidized national railways, one of whom loved high trade tariffs and the other of whom was immeasurably corrupt, apparently escapes them.”

We live in serious times.  We need serious leadership.  It’s not going to come from the Government.

8 comments to Who Audits the Auditor, and why it’s not news…

  • myna lee johnstone

    Obomsawin’s “The People of Kattawapiskak River” documentary on @thenfb http://www.nfb.ca/film/people_of_kattawapiskak_river … #Attawapiskat

    Kim Reply:

    Yes, the truth is right there in front of us.

  • myna lee johnstone

    the part about the Zamboni purchase is so revealing of the ignorance and gawddamn slurs from the pundits

    Troy Reply:

    What worse, is these people make these misleading comments, and then don’t apologize when facts are presented that prove them wrong or lying. There’s no justice, even for combating what in Canadian society would be considered libel and slander.

    Kim Reply:

    There will be justice, in the end. The women of Idle No More will see to that. With the help of Canadians of all stripes.

  • Kev

    Reading the audit alarm bells went off early when Deloitte praised AANDC for many of the very things the Auditor General criticized them for. While this audit report is most definitely torqued to produce the desired effect what screams out at me is just how much AANDC has to answer for here.

  • kootcoot

    “The irony of naming a free-market think tank over the only two prime ministers in our history to repeatedly blow the budget building thickly subsidized national railways, one of whom loved high trade tariffs and the other of whom was immeasurably corrupt, apparently escapes them.”

    This isn’t ironic at all, actually – the current crop of “free-market” reich wing governments though having abandoned trade tariffs, freeing capital to ignore borders entirely (in the name of IMPOSED free trade which has the effect of Corporate usurpation of the peoples right to regulate in their own interests about things like the environment and health) have continued to practice budget busting and corruption, from Lyin’ Brian, to Ronnie Raygun, to Bu$h the Lesser/Darth Cheney, to our current LINOs in Victoria from the Campbell/Clark Crime Family to the hideous ruling cabal in Ottawa today under Treason Steven! They just have this habit of opposite speak so well described in 1984.

  • Priscilla Judd

    Wow Kim, that’s a great story! The CPC audit: Deloitte’s original opinion “has been withdrawn…” That’s damming stuff. These guys all look like crooks.

    Here’s more: Deloitte is being Audited in the US and UK for not having evidence (receipts) to back up some of their findings. (link below)

    Also, I wanted to share this from Deloitte’s Attawapiskat Audit’s Background 1.1 (second paragraph):
    “On April 19, 2012, based on the progress made in remediating urgent housing-related health and safety issues, AANDC determined that the default situation was remedied and removed the First Nation from third party management.”

    So, they claim the appointed monitor for Attawapiskat left AFTER the housing crisis was resolved? HUH? That crisis is still ongoing and by the way, the Court ordered him out! So what what can you believe? It’s all spin! The Government should be held accountable for promoting racism.

    I recently learned that the Crown is the Trustee for First Nations money – apparently, there are no “hand outs from taxpayers”. That’s according to the info on the twitter link below.

    The Federal Government manages 2 trillion dollars worth of First Nation money which generates 35 billion/year in interest. And First nations have to jump through hoops and forms to get their own money which is then characterized as “a handout”. How about it Kim, this is quite the story!

    https://twitter.com/tendayjourney/status/292432050424795136/photo/1

    Here’s the link to Federal Government Trustee of First Nations Money:
    http://aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100032353/1100100032355#ft88a

    Here are a few more links on Deloitte:
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/francinemckenna/2012/11/20/hewlett-packards-autonomy-allegations-a-material-writedown-puts-all-four-audit-firms-on-the-spot/

    “Deloitte was the auditor of Autonomy, a UK software firm acquired by HP in 2011 for $11.1 billion. HP announced today it is writing down more than $5 billion…because of “serious accounting improprieties, misrepresentation and disclosure failures”.”

    and
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/17/us-deloitte-pcaob-idUSTRE79G6EQ20111017

    “Deloitte auditors on nine of the 61 audits it reviewed did not obtain adequate evidence to support their opinions… Auditors also may not have exercised proper skepticism or properly challenged management estimates…”

    Deloitte’s Audit of Attawapiskat:
    OTTAWA, ONTARIO (January 7, 2013) – Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) today released the results of the comprehensive and independent audit relating to the Attawapiskat First Nation’s Management Control Framework which was carried out by Deloitte and Touche LLP. see here: http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1350243697995/1350243941069