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Home My WebLink AboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-02-22, Page 19BOOK REVIEW rossroads—Feb. 22, 1984—Page 5 Mainstram Canada Dyed-in-the- wool goVernment waste By W. Roger Worth The auditor general, Ken- neth Dye, A goodly man, but not too shy, Checked the books and found them wanting, For our government, the re- - sults werehaunting. OPENING WEEK BUSINESS HOURS PRIDE OF CANADA SLICED SIDE BACON TUESDAY THRU FRIDAY 9:00 A.M. TO 9:30 P.M. SATURDAY 8:30 A.M. TO 6:00 P.M. FIRST QUALITY 500 g PACKAGE ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL SCHNEIDERS WIENERS (LIMIT 6 PKGS. PER CUSTOMER) ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL /450 g PKG. THIS PAGE OF SPECIALS IN EFFECT IN CONESTOGA MALL UNTIL CLOSING SAT. FEB. 25 SAVE UP TO 60 PLUS BONUS HOMO - 2% SKIM ENRICHED WHITE, CR. WHEAT', 60% W. WHEAT ZEHRS BREAD . AT THE DELI COUNTER PRIDE of CANADA SAVE 70' GIANT 1.5 LITRE REG. OR DIET COOKED HAM REGULAR OR SANDWICH STYLE ONLY AT CONESTOGA -MALL- PLUS 60' DEPOSIT PLUS BONUS ONLY AT CONESTOUCMALL UMIAMITMERNAMCIWPWIRMY:LN Miring? BUY ONE GET ONE FREE ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL '4,7a4—, Apakragatammagarim&rwmforgi,. SAVE s3.10 BUY ONE GET ONE FREE! 4 DELICIOUS POPULAR FLAVOURS SAVE '2.09 SAVE 1.65 (RETAIL VALUE 85) ' WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY 4 LITRE MAPLE LANE PAY ONLY PKG. OF 10 ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL Mern3DiMMIENSIMAIST MIBBIEUMMVERM-WiTAVOMMISERmswil* SAVE 46C Vt..mgen.MESSIBEEMONEWAERZWir .3, 4.• BUY ONE GET ONE FREE! ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL Itpa TAISESMITEMND 4 POPULAR VARIETIES PAY ONLY 200 g PKG. ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL i4M20M1117.1=, ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL 2,1KFM:rinM171 A NI% Ti3,5i 'CAA Mc BULK FOOD SPECIAL FRESICKLICIOUS OUR REG 4.99 4.39/kg v, lb. ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL 4 +1,‘ "". , „, „ • Ar, 17E2,S:3Z4,11„ THIS PAGE OF EXTRA SPECIALS AVAILABLE ONLY AT ZEHRS NEW CONESTOGA MALL STORE WATERLOO UNTIL CLOSING SAT. FEB. 25 SEE ADDITIONAL PAGES FOR ZEHRS SPECIALS IN ALL MARKETS INCLUDING CONESTOGA MALL 2.18/kg 10 oz. JAR ONLY AT CONESTOGA MALL , ......- A learned reviewer might call that atrocious verse, but then, I make no pretense of being a poet. In his own way Kenneth Dye, Canada's Auditor Gen- eral, is a reviewer. He and his staff review the federal government's books and ,ac- counting procedures to en- sure that all of us can under- stand that our tax dollars are being reasonably spent. In his latest report to tax- payers, Dye gave the gov- ernment's bookkeepers a disastrous review. In fact, it was so bad the Auditor Gen- eral claims the numbers are out by a whopping $20 -bil- lion. In real terms, it is a bit like claiming on a credit applica- tion your expenditures are $20,000 when they're really much, much more. Bankers doing a credit check would not be amused. Yet the government of Canada gets away with such inaccurate reporting, and has been for years. How can this be? The country's Finance' Minister says it is a "techni- cal matter," and disagrees' , with the Auditor General's criticisms. So nothing is done. There can be no disagree- ment, however, on some of the, blunders Dye empha- sized in his report. How to explain, for example, the $350,000 that Ottawa lost on a ew Brunswick motel loan gugraie which had had been appraised at $500,000, was sold at auction - for $200 in 1982. The buyer resold the motel a day later for $75,200. A bizarre inci- dent indeed. Then there is the case of the office space. Late in 1983, the federal government started paying rent at. the rate of $12 -million per year on an Ottawa office tower that wouldn't be used until 1984. At the same time, the government owns or rents space worth $7.7 -million per year in the same city that isn't being used. Still, Ottawa isn't the only culprit when it comes to wasting money. In Ontario, the provincial auditor says the government's Waste Management Corporation spent $16,722 on 22 chairs, or an average of $761 per seat. But when it comes to poor bookkeeping, it is hard to outdo the bureaucrats in one Ontario department and two municipalities. The department mistaken- ly paid $264,500 for a sewage project to the wrong munici- pality. The municipality that should have received the money didn't complain. Nor did the municipality that re- ceived the windfall. And the government department -in- volved simply didn't under- stand there was an error, un- til the auditor pointed it out. All this helps explain, per- haps, why we need indepen- dent government auditors, even if they are expensive. What we really require, though, are governments that will act on their advice. HITLER'S REICH. By Eileen Pearson. Greenhaven Press, Inc., 577 Shoreview Park Road, St. Paul, Minn. 32 pp. U.S. $5.95. Paper U.S. $2.25. Reviewed by PERCY MADDUX Here in Eileen Pearson's "Hitler's Reich" is a brief sketch of the years of Nazi Germany accompanied by many black and white pic- tures. At the end are quota- tions from various persons describing matters pertinent to the Third Reich. The text is given in simple understandable language and provides students with a clear introduction to this part of history. 6 IP