Rising expenditure of government departments in march: spending “stupid and useless”, according to the CAQ

Photo Simon Clark
The spokesperson of the CAQ, Eric Cairo

Patrick Bellerose

Tuesday, 27 February 2018 15:56

UPDATE
Tuesday, 27 February 2018 15:58

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The departments are wasting public funds in the month of march in order to avoid cuts in their operating budgets, says the spokesperson of the CAQ, Eric Cairo.

• READ ALSO: officials saw mad in march

“It not only discourages good directors have a tight budget, but it encourages the spending stupid and useless”, says the critic caquiste of the treasury Board.

The Journal revealed on Tuesday that the expenditure of government departments are six times higher in march than the average of the other months, in terms of office supplies and computer equipment.

This fever extravagant, and dubbed “March Madness”, is explained by the arrival of the end of the financial year. An organization that does not spend all of its budget may see amputated part the following year.

Poor management

The CAQ proposes to reconsider how to allocate the budgets to enable good managers to keep the surplus modest. “How do you want to go look for the performance of the part of our administrators when it penalizes the good and reward the cancres?”, lance Eric Cairo.

To this end, The member for la Peltrie has introduced bill 992 last September in order to make deputy ministers more accountable. “We demand that the management of the sub-ministers should be verified by the Auditor general in terms of objectives, targets and budgets that have been entrusted to us,” sums up Éric Caire.

Multi-year basis

For its part, the PQ argues rather in favour of departmental budgets on a multi-year basis. “In this context then, if someone managed to do well one year, it does not see a threat to its future budgets,” explains the spokesperson of the parti québecois in the field of finance, Nicolas Marceau.

The pq government of Pauline Marois had also begun to study the issue in 2013, emphasizes Nicolas Marceau, but ran out of time to put the measure in place. “It is a big ocean liner,” he says.

Depending on the needs

The office of the president of the treasury Board, which holds the purse strings to the government, it does not appear in the process of changing the method of allocation of budgets. “The funds are granted to departments according to their needs, says the press officer of Pierre Arcand, in a written reply. They must demonstrate why the money must be allocated.”