Premier Roy Romanow and Minister of Finance Eric Cline:
Cheating the Electorate by Fragmenting Government's Accountability

Nipawin - October 13, by:Mario deSantis
   

systemic
policy

I just wrote an article on our need to question our leadership(1), and today, in reviewing the
latest Report of the Provincial Auditor(2), I find confirmation that the governmental behaviour
of skewing public information to mislead the people is not an occasional event but a systemic
policy(3).

 

 

serving
itself

A government should be representative of the people's will, instead we have reached the
ultimate level of corruption whereby this government is not serving the public but it is
serving itself and its friends(4).

 

 

increasing
the
public debt

One thing I want to make simple and clear, this government has been telling us they have
been reducing the public debt, and instead they have been lying to us, in fact they have been
increasing the public debt. In 1991 our government had a debt of $17,555 million and
today in 2000, this same government has a debt of $18,975 million. And you know what
Premier Roy Romanow and Minister of Finance Eric Cline tell us, they tell us that they
have been the first province to balance the budget.

 

 

carry
forward
our liability

Here on one hand we balance the yearly fiscal budget and on the other hand we increase
the debt, I ask "is this the way to do business?" We remind our Honourable and distinguished
Minister of Finance Eric Cline, that as we go into the next fiscal year we forget about the
previous budget and we carry forward our liability, that is our debt, that is our minus $18,975
million!

 

 

number
game

Our Premier Roy Romanow and Eric Cline cannot be blamed for a short memory in focusing
only on the yearly fiscal budget for the simple reason that they have been playing with the
number game since they came to power. And they both played the number game when in
presenting the 2000-2001 provincial budget, Eric Cline stated that this was "the seventh
consecutive balanced budget" and that the total debt of the province was $11,509 million(5).
The number game has finished Premier Roy Romanow and Eric Cline, and you are going to
pay dearly for your misdeeds, and your legacy is a nightmare for all the people of the province
and especially for the most weakest and disadvantaged, our young aboriginal people(6).

 

 

deceiving
the people

My conclusion is that Honourable Premier Roy Romanow and Honourable Eric Cline have
been deceiving the people of Saskatchewan by keeping up two sets of books, the first focused
on the General Revenue Fund, and the second including any other business representing about
40% of Government activity. In realizing this accounting anomaly, our Acting Provincial
Auditor, Fred Wendel, has stated "the Government should publish planning and performance
information that shows the entire Government.
   
---------------Endnotes:
   

1.
-
-

The priority in health reform is not the number of health district boards but the questioning of our leadership, by Mario deSantis, October 11, 2000 Submitted for publishing to 'TheStarPhoenix' of Saskatoon and to the 'Nipawin Journal' of Nipawin.
   

2.
-

Report of the Provincial Auditor: Understanding the Finances of the Government, 2000 Fall Report, Volume 1, Provincial Auditor of Saskatchewan
   

3.
-

Premier Romanow's Government: Skewing Information and Keeping From Learning, by Mario deSantis, July 18, 2000
   

4.
-

Governments must stop to serve themselves and their friends, by Mario deSantis, February 12, 2000
   

5.
-

Financial Highlights of 2000-01 BUDGET, March 29, 2000, PROVINCE OF SASKATCHEWAN, March 29, 2000
   

6.
-

Honourable Eric Cline has not balanced the budget yet, he forgot our school-children, by Mario deSantis, April 2, 2000