General

PBO chief quoted out of context in G8/G20 report

Report that misquotes AG Sheila Fraser bungles Kevin Page’s statement as well

The Conservative committee report on G8/G20 spending that had wrongly attributed a statement by Auditor General Shelia Fraser has also misquoted Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page. According to the report, Page made the following statement: “the PMO’s research of publicly available information indicates that no other host country has provided ‘total’ security costs to this level of detail.” Page’s statement was made on June 23, 2010, but the report was based on hearings conducted by the committee in October and December. The same report had quoted the Auditor General saying, “we found that the processes and controls around [the summit spending] were very good, and that the monies were spent as they were intended to be sent.” The quote was actually from a 2005 report on Liberal security spending after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. A spokesman for Conservative MP Chris Warkentin, who was the vice-chair of the committee, issued an apology for the controversy, and said, “we assure you that it was most definitely not our intention to quote you erroneously or out of context.”

The Hill Times

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