Does someone out there have a serious grudge against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency?
If so, they appear to be taking it out on the agency’s vehicles.
Public accounts reports tabled in Parliament and detailing departmental spending and material losses for the 2009-10 fiscal year show the CFIA had one of the highest rates of vehicle vandalism in the government – 57 incidents that cost the agency $29,168.
In contrast, other departments with large vehicle fleets such as Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada reported two and four vandalized cars respectively.
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When CFIA vehicles weren’t being vandalized, employees were smashing them up.
The Receiver General of Canada office reported that 111 accidents with CFIA vehicles in 2009-10 cost the agency $133,000, although much of that will be recouped through insurance. Agriculture Canada reported 49 accidents that cost the department $31,000.
Other departments reported just a handful of vehicle accidents.
The numbers were contained in many pages of detail about millions of dollars of thefts or losses from government departments during the past year.
Many losses were stolen or misplaced Blackberries, computers lifted from government offices and in the case of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, theft of a $36,000 car. Two snowmobiles worth almost $24,000 were stolen from Parks Canada.
Industry Canada had almost $17,000 worth of laptop computers stolen, as well as $991 worth of office keys, which could explain several hundred thousand dollars worth of thefts, including 126 stolen desktop computers worth more than $53,000.
At National Defence, almost 4,000 military kits worth $252,000 were stolen, as well as $84,000 worth of communications equipment.
In the prison system, inmate riots caused $114,000 in damages and vandalism another $100,000.
The public accounts documents also show that Agriculture Canada and its agencies spent $3.5 billion last year.
Revenues including fee-for-service charges reduced the net agriculture expenditure to $3.36 billion.
