The politics of audit: the federal Office of the Auditor General in comparative perspective

Abstract: The Office of the Auditor General has continued to expand its functions since the legislation of 1977. In March 1985 it was in court against the Government of Canada, pressing a claim that the auditor general (AG) required all of cabinet's papers that may have touched on the acquisition by Petro Canada Limited of Petrofina Canada Inc., a subsidiary of the Belgian company Petrofina S.A., in order to complete his review of expenditures from the Canadian Ownership Account. The rationale presented was that the AG needed to see the whole picture of advice tendered to cabinet by officials in order to assess whether cabinet itself had done its homework before authorizing the deal, after which he could give cabinet a “report card.” The Federal Court Justice's Reason for Decision, released on November 1, initially seemed to give the AG even more than he had asked, while the eventual decision of December 6 reintroduced grave ambiguity. The argument of the paper is that the AG'S move into the advice stream, as opposed to the traditional duties of an auditor, constitutes his Office as a force in policy-making, a factor that cannot be reconciled with responsible and representative government. The article compares the OAGS legislation and operating mandate with those of provincial legislative auditors, and those of Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. It concludes that the 1977 legislation should be rewritten so that the OAG would once more work from the base of a replicable, objective financial audit, reporting as broadly as it would wish. Sommaire: Le Bureau du Vérificateur général à continue a é largir ses fonctions depuis qu'il a obtenu la nouvelle lé gislation en 1977. En mars 1985, il faisait comparaître devant les tribunaux le gouvernement du Canada, dans le cadre d'un procès réclamant le droit d'accèb, par le Vérificateur général, à tous les documents du Conseil des ministres concernant l'acquisition, par Pétro-Canada Ltée, de la société Pétrofina Canada Inc., une succursale de la société belge Pétrofina S. A., afin de compléter l'exa-men, par le Vérificateur général, des dépenses effectuées a même le Compte de propriété canadienne. D'après l'argument présenté, le Vérificateur général (VG) devait être au courant de tous les conseils fournis par les fonctionnaires au Conseil des ministres, afin que le VG puisse décider si le Conseil lui-même avait bien fait son travail avant d'autoriser le rachat, après quoi le Vérificateur général serait à même d'évaluer les gestes posés par le Conseil. Les raisons de la décision du juge de la Cour fédérale, publiées le 1^er novembre, semblaient initialement donner au VG encore plus qu'il n'avait demandé, mais la décision éventuellement rendue le 6 décembre réin-troduisait d'importantes ambiguîtés. Selon l'argument de l'article, l'entrée du Vérificateur général dans le domaine des conseils prodigués, contrairement aux devoirs traditionnels d'un vérificateur, fait du Bureau du Vérificateur général une véritable instance décisionnelle pour l'adoption de politiques, facteur incompatible avec la notion de gouvernement responsable et représentatif. L'article compare la législation et le mandat fonctionnel du Bureau du VG à ceux des vérificateurs législatifs provinciaux de la Grande-Bretagne, de la Nouvelle-Zélande et de l'Australie. Il en conclut que la législation de 1977 devrait être reformulée afin que le Bureau du VG axe ses travaux de nouveau sur une vérification financeère objective, la portée de son compte rendu pouvant être aussi large qu'il le veut.     

Forensic comparison of soils by bacterial community DNA profiling

This preliminary investigation has shown that a soil microbial community DNA profile can be obtained from the small sample of soil recovered from the sole of a shoe, and from soil stains on clothing. We have also shown that these profiles are representative of the site of collection and therefore could potentially be used as associative evidence to prove a link between suspects and crime scenes. Soil community profiles were obtained using the T-RFLP fingerprinting method that uses fluorescent primer technology and semi-automated analysis techniques similar to those used in human DNA profiling in forensic laboratories.     

Use of the ventral arc in pubic sex determination

A sample of 1284 well-documented pubic bones was studied for sex determination methods. This sample included many adolescents and could be used to expand Phenice's 1969 study, which was largely based on mature adults. In the present study, focus was placed on the ventral arc which, when used alone, provided 96% accuracy in sex determination. This paper stresses the development of the ventral arc in the adolescent: a precursor condition is defined, which first appears at age 14 and becomes the most frequent condition at age 20. In mature adults, 4% show conditions that are misleading and likely to lead to sex determination errors. Practical applications of this method are discussed in relation to the forensic science setting, including three cases. A set of casts was developed to increase the reliability of the method, and these casts were then tested in interobserver error studies.     

The Al-Mashat affair: administrative accountability in parliamentary institutions

Abstract: The article approaches the Canadian federal government's handling of the Al-Mashat affair in May and June of 1991 as a case study in direct administrative accountability. The author begins with a discussion of the main lines of political control under responsible government, writing as a partisan for the traditional doctrines of collective and individual ministerial responsibility. A number of questions emerging from this discussion are then posed as probes into the case: was an important minister effectively shielded; was blame ever allocated in a convincing way; were the criteria of natural justice respected in both internal actions and in the House of Commons' Standing Committee on External Affairs and International Trade; were democratic controls over political and administrative action respected? It is the author's conclusion that the government's strategy to deflect its accountability onto a senior career official and a political chief of staff failed on all these counts and several more, as well. Perhaps the most important of these is the politicization of officials. Another disturbing element that the case reveals is a willingness to arrogate new powers and liberties to the executive. Sommaire: Cet article examine la reaction du gouvernement fédéral Canadian dams I'af-faire Al-Mashed, en mai et juin 1991, pour faire une étude de cas fort intéressante sur I'imputabilité administrative directe. L'auteur discute tout d'abord des grandes lignes du contrôle politique du gouvernement responsible, du point de vue d'un partisan des doctrines traditionnelles de responsabilité ministérielle collective et individuelle. L'auteur arrive alors à un certain nombre de questions qui permitting d'explorer plus loin ce cas: un minister important a-t-il en fait été protég? Le blâime dans cette affaire a-t-il jamais été attribué de manière convaincante? Les critères de la justice naturelle ont-ils été respectés aussi bien dans le cadre des mesures internes qu'au Comité permanent de la Chamber des Communes chargé des affaires extérieures et du commerce international? Les contrôles déocratiques régissant les activités politiques et administratives ont-ils été appliqués? L'auteur en arrive à la conclusion que, à tous ces égards et sur bien dautres points encore, la stratégie suivie par le gouvemement pour rejeter ses respon-sabilités sur un haut fonctionnaire et sur un chef de personnel politique fut un échec. L'élément le plus important est peut-être la politisation des fonctionnaires. L'autre élément contestable revélé dans cette affaire est l'inclination à attribuer de nouveaux pouvoirs et Iibertés à 1'Exécutif.     

The potency of cannabis in New Zealand from 1976 to 1996.

The potency of cannabis plant and cannabis products seized in New Zealand over the period of 20 years is studied. The earlier part of the study includes mainly imported cannabis oil and cannabis resin, and both imported and locally grown cannabis plant, that was seized by the police. The later part of the study includes little imported material. Cannabis plant is now locally grown, cannabis oil is locally manufactured and imported cannabis resin is rarely seized. The average potency of the cannabis plant available to the user has not increased over the 20 years period. Cannabis leaf contains on average 1% THC and the female flowering heads on average 3.5% THC. The average potency of cannabis oil has dropped from its peak at 34% THC in 1985 to 13% THC in 1995.