The Auditor General's review of the Workers Compensation Board

The Auditor General's report into the Workers Compensation Board (WCB) again confirms a consistent pattern of NDP mismanagement of the Government of Manitoba and its affairs. The WCB is an agency that is a part of our provincial government. In 2001, Pat Jacobsen, the CEO of WCB, wrote to the then NDP Minister Responsible for the WCB, Becky Barrett. In her letter, Ms. Jacobsen (a person with excellent credentials and a known high level of integrity) wrote about her concerns with the way investment decisions were being made at WCB, and with the links between individuals involved with the Crocus Investment Fund and the WCB. Those concerns included the Chair of the WCB, which is why Ms. Jacobsen asked the Minister (Becky Barrett) to review the situation.

Appallingly, the NDP's way of dealing with these concerns was to refer the letter to the Chair of the WCB - the very individual about whom Ms. Jacobsen raised concerns! As the Auditor General (AG) makes clear, the right thing to do would have been to launch an independent review of the WCB. The AG says: "when the concerns are respecting the actions of a government appointed Chair, we believe that is it incumbent on the Minister to take a proactive role in ensuring an independent review is conducted."

Because of the links between the Crocus Investment Fund and the WCB, it is quite possible that an independent review conducted at that time would have unearthed some of the problems at the Crocus Investment Fund and perhaps prevented the major losses that eventually hit investors in Crocus. The NDP are clearly responsible for blocking this review, and their actions may thus have had dire consequences for Manitobans who invested in Crocus and for Manitoba taxpayers who subsidized Crocus.

Moreover, the links revealled between the Crocus Investment Fund and the Workers Compensation Board provide additional compelling reasons for an immediate Public Inquiry into the Crocus scandal in order to clear the air and to find ways to make sure scandals like this do not occur in the future.

The current NDP Minister Responsible for the Workers Compensation Board, Nancy Allan, is just wrong in her approach to the whole scandal. She has actually said that former NDP Minister Becky Barrett 'did the right thing' and 'acted within the law' when she ratted-out Pat Jacobsen to WCB Chair Wally Fox-Decent for being a whistleblower. I agree with the Auditor General that former Minister Barrett's action was just plain wrong and that an independent review should have been called in 2001. For NDP Minister Nancy Allan to say that Ms. Barrett was correct indicates that Minister Allan has not got the message. There is no doubt we need to remove the present NDP government because of its mismanagment, its continuing mistakes, and its inability to understand right from wrong.

If you want to read the AG's report, you can access it online (html and pdf) at: http://www.oag.mb.ca/reports/reports_fr.htm