Alberta's Auditor General is considering an investigation into the highly PC-connected ad firm Highwood Communications. After leaving $5.3 million in unpaid bills, Highwood applied for bankruptcy protection after receiving $41.3 million in exclusive government contracts over the past 10 years.
Auditor General Fred Dunn would like to conduct an audit of the company, but is waiting on sufficient resources.Ed Stelmach has refused to ask the Auditor General to investigate and has said he believes that taxpayers got "their moneys worth" from Highwood, even though many unanswered questions still remain about what happened with taxpayers money and why the bills went unpaid.
"We're considering how and when we could conduct a systems audit," said Lori Trudgeon, a spokeswoman for Dunn's office.
Giving the Auditor General the resources to investigate what happened to the millions of taxpayers' dollars entrusted to Highwood Communications through their exclusive government contracts is a plain and simple issue of giving Albertans the accountability, transparency, and integrity they deserve in their government. The integrity that Ed Stelmach promised Albertans.
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2 comments:
Seems like a waste if they only received $41.30 in government money.
Or did you forget a millions in there, Dave? :)
Spin, spin, spin.
Your cutting-and-pasting is very tactical. Of course, you certainly de-emphasized this part:
-"In the spring, Dunn's office conducted an investigation into Highwood's most recent contract and found nothing wrong. The company lost its government contract last summer."
So he (Dunn) is already familiar with the company. And there is nothing preventing Dunn from conducting an investigation if he wishes.
The only "story" here is of a company that went bankrupt and suppliers that weren't sharp enough to keep track of their accounts receivable. You are only making a case out of it because Highwood used to run ads on behalf of a Tory gov't. And because the owner of the business - like most people who bother to own a membership in a political party in this province - is/was a card-carrying PC.
As the newspaper article said, the ads were bought and they were run. The taxpayer is not out anything. Somehow, I doubt you would be working so hard to make a story out of this if a company long known for running Alberta Liberal ads went out of busines with unpaid debts.
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