Charlie Angus is right to note that one of the more serious aspects of Tony Clement's G8 pork-barrel coverup may be the prospect that senior bureaucrats gave false information to the Auditor General at the Cons' behest. But it's also worth noting the possibility that civil servants were themselves misled.
While there may be some overlap between the departments involved in the slush fund and those canvassed by the AG's office, there's nothing to indicate whether the officials who asssured the Auditor General they had nothing to do with the fund were the same ones involved in project selection. And given how tangled the fund's management seems to have been already, would it be much of a surprise if the Cons effectively decided to staff it with lower-level public servants without fully informing their superiors - secure in the knowledge that if anything blew up, the senior officials would make for convenient scapegoats?
Of course, that possibility is just as speculative as Angus' concern. But there's a common thread either way involving Clement and the Cons distorting the proper role of the civil service - and it's well worth keeping the focus there as the story develops.
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