7 February 2002. Thanks to DB.
The Gazette (Montreal)
February 5, 2002 Tuesday Final EDITION Pg. A13
JIM BRONSKILL
Problems with "inappropriate use" of government credit cards persisted for more than a year at Canada's ultra-secret electronic spy agency, internal documents reveal.
Auditors at the Communications Security Establishment, who began looking into the matter in 1999, uncovered incorrect charges, an absence of records and invoices, dormant cards, no account controls such as spot checks and a lack of training for card holders.
The reviewers made several recommendations in August 1999 to clean up the misuse, but a follow-up audit found that a year later only one of the measures - a new policy limiting computer purchases - had been implemented. "No additional steps to control the use of these cards have been taken," says the September 2000 audit report. "Our review confirmed that significant problems with the use of acquisition cards still exist."
A copy of the audit report was recently obtained by Southam News under the Access to Information Act.
The Ottawa-based CSE, a shadowy unit of the Defence Department, monitors foreign radio, telephone, fax, satellite and computer traffic for data of interest to Canada.
CSE computer specialists, mathematicians and language experts comb through the intercepted material to create intelligence reports for government agencies - information that supports Canada's military, trade, anti-terrorism and crime-fighting initiatives.
The auditors looked at the credit-card files for fiscal year 1999-00 of more than 200 employees, some of whom held both an American Express card and MasterCard. They found 38 cases in which the $5,000 expenditure limit had been exceeded, six files without the proper sign-off and virtually none with receipts, the report says.
The reviewers tried to determine how many computers had been bought with credit cards, but "the lack of logs or receipts made this determination impossible," the report adds.
"We also noted instances of late charges due to delinquent payments, personal use (later reimbursed) and one case of billing through a third party."
The auditors also "identified nine individual files with significant issues," though the report provides no details.
In addition, some credit-card use did not comply with federal Treasury Board or CSE guidelines, the report says. "These card-holders should have their cards suspended pending further investigation by appropriate managers." The auditors concluded "problems with the inappropriate use of acquisition cards by CSE staff continue."
In an interview, CSE spokesman Suzie Lebel stressed "there was no personal benefit, no employee fraud" connected with misuse of the cards.