Will it be another sponsorship scandal?

This arrived in my mailbox this morning:

Media Advisory

OTTAWA - The 2006-2007 Supplementary Estimates (A) will be tabled in Parliament on Monday, October 30, 2006 at approximately 3:00 p.m. There will be a technical briefing with officials from the Treasury Board Secretariat to provide journalists with an overview of the Estimates process.

Normally, pretty boring stuff. However, you might remember this:

"Members often admitted—sometimes with regret—that they did not pay much attention to the Estimates, that they had only a weak idea of what level of resources was expended to achieve program results, and [that] they did not know what financial instruments departments use to achieve their assigned results. In the series of incidents over the last few years (Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC) contributions program, gun control, Sponsorship), a number of MPs apportioned at least some “contextual” blame to inadequate parliamentary oversight of program expenditures. "

"Each year, some 87 departments and other government organizations provide parliamentary committees with separate spending estimates and related reports, and many of these receive no formal attention in committee meetings. And when meetings occur, they are typically dominated by partisan exchanges with ministers that shed minimal light on the estimates. Consideration of the supplementary estimates, which allow departments to obtain additional funding at specified intervals during the year, has been even less satisfactory. With only a few exceptions, committees regularly fail to examine them at all."

Let's hope the kids we elect read the estimates this year. It might be the most important thing that they can do to avoid another screw-up.

It's what we pay them to do.