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